The Adventures Of Isabella Stone
by Laurenlouise96
Summary: Time lady fic. Isabella Stone spends her life travelling through the doctor's timeline, joining in on his adventures with his companions. Join Izzy as she attempts to navigate her life whilst constantly jumping through the doctor's timeline.
1. Chapter 1

**The Beast Below Part One**

I sit in my room playing with my dolls, my brother's playing on his own and my older sister is at thr park. I think my mum is in thr living room. My dad's at work, I think. My body starts to hurt, It's not bad at first but the pain soon gets worse. I squeeze my eyes shut and wait for the pain to go away.

When the pain goes away, I open my eyes and let out a sqeak when I look around me. _Where am I? This isn't my bedroom. I don't know where I am._ I look around the room and I see two grown ups by the doors. The lady is flying and the man is holding onto the lady's ankle. _Am I dreaming?_ He pulls the lady inside the room.

"Now do you believe me?" He asks the lady.

"Okay, your box is a spaceship. It's really, really a spaceship. We are in space! What are we breating?" she asks the man.

"I've extended the air shell. We're fine." They both lean out of the room and look down. "Now that's interesting. Twenty ninth century. Solar flares roast the earth, and the entire human race packs it's bags and moves out till the weather improves. Whole nations." The man says before he turns to face me and stops.

He slowly walks up to me, he crouches down in front of me before saying, "hello there. How did you get here?"

"I-I don't know. Where's my mum?" I ask him.

"I don't know. What's your name?"

"Isabella."

"Isabella, I have a friend with that name. That's a bit of a coincidence, what's your last name?"

"Stone. Isabella Stone."

"You're her! You're my Izzy!"

"What are you talking about?"

"Sorry. I'm not making any sense, am I?"

I shake my head no at him.

"Izzy, you will go home, but first I need you to be big and brave and come on an adventure with me because I need you." He tells me.

"Why do you need me?"

"Because you're special. You're the most important person in the universe."

"Really?"

"Yes really."

"I don't know who you are."

"Oh. Right. I'm the doctor and you're my Izzy and as usual, I nees your help."

"How can I help?"

"You can always help, you will helpe save the universe."

I just stare at him, before a smile creeps onto my face. The doctor runs over to the thing in the middle of the room and the doors close.

"Doctor?" I hear the lady call. I try to look for her but I can't find her anywhere. Her voice is coming from outside. My eyes widen.

"Migrating to the stars." The doctor says not noticing the lady calling for him.

"Doctor?"

"Isn't that amazing?"

I go over to the doctor and try pulling on his clothes to get attention but he doesn't notice.

"Doctor!"

He finally hears her and runs over to the doors, he opens them to find the lady hanging onto the room. "Well, come on. I've found us a spaceship." he tells her become walking over towards me. He stops in front of the thing in the middle of the room, he turns his telly on and a spaceship is on it.

"This is the United Kingdom of Britain and Northern Ireland. All of it, bolted together and floating in the sky. Starship UK. It's britain, but metal. That's not just a ship, that's an idea. That's a whole country, living and laughing and shopping. Searching the stars for a new home." He tells us.

"Who's this?" the lady asks the doctor.

"This is Izzy."

"Not the same one I met.."

The doctor cuts her off, "Yes the same one, only that hasn't happened for her yet, she's at the beginning. Izzy meet Amy pond."

Amy turns to the doctor, "Can we go out and see?"

"Course we can. But first, there's a thing." He tells her.

"A thing?"

"An important thing. In fact, thing one. We are observers only. That's the one rule I've always stuck to in all my travels. I never get involved in the affairs of other peoples or planets."

On the telly, a girl is waitong by a set of lifts. "Ooo, that's interesting." the doctor murmurs. He turns around and walks out while Amy is talking.

"So we're like a wildlife documentary, yeah? Because if they see a wounded little cub or something, they can't just save it, they've got to keep filming and let it die. It's got to be hard. I don't think I could do that? Don't you find that hard, being all, like, detached and cold?"

The doctor comes onto the telly and starts talking to the girl, who's now crying.

"Doctor?" Amy asks. He waves us forward and I follow amy out of the room we're in.

"I'm in the future. Like hundreds of years in the future. I've been dead for centuries." Amy says.

"Oh, lovely. You're a cheery one. Never mind dead, look at this place. Isn't it wrong?" The doctor asks her.

"What's wrong?"

"Come on, use your eyes. Notice everything. What's wrong with this picture?"

"Is it the bicycles? Bit unusal on a spaceship, bicycles."

"Says the girl in her nightie."

"Oh my god, I'm in my nightie."

"Now, come on, look around you. Actually look."

"Life on a giany starship. Back to basics. Bicycles, washing lines, wind-up street lamps. But look closer. Secrets and shadows, lives led in fear. Society bent out of shape, on the brink of collapse. A police state. Excuse me." The doctor says before picking a glass of water off a table and putting it on the floor.

He looks at the glass before putting it back on the table. "Sorry. Checking all the water in this area. There's an escaped fish. Where was I?"

"Why did you just do that with the water?"

"Don't know. I think a lot. It's hard to keep track. Now, police state. Do you see it yet?"

I look around me and notice the girl from earlier, she's sitting on her own, crying silently. "The girl." I tell them.

"Yes! Well done Izzy." The doctor praises me.

"Where?" Amy asks.

"There." The doctor tells her before going over to the young girl.

"One little girl crying. So?" Amy asks.

"Crying silently. I mean, children cry because they want attention, because they're hurt or afraid. But when they cry silently, It's because they just can't stop. Any parent knows that."

"Are you a parent?"

"Hundreds of parents walking past who spot her and not one of them's asking her what's wrong, which means they already know, and it's something they don't talk about. Secrets. They're not helping her, so it's something they're afraid of, it's nowhere to be seem, which means it's everywhere. Police state."

I watch as the girl gets into a lift. "where'd she go?" Amy asks.

"Deck two oh seven. Apple sesame block, dwelling 54a. You're looking for Mandy Tanner. Oh, er, this fell out of heg pocket when I accidentally bumped into her. Took me four goes. Ask her about those things. The smiling fellows in the booths. They're everywhere."

The doctor gives amy a colourful wallet.

"But they're just things."

"They're clean. Everything else here is all battered and filthy. Look at this place. But no one's laid a finger on those booths. Not a footprint within two feet of them. Look. Ask Mandy, why are people scared of the things in the booths?"

"No, hang on. What do I do? I don't know what I'm doing here and I'm not even dressed."

"It's this or Leadworth. What do you think? Let's see. What will Amy Pond choose? Ha ha, gotcha. Meet us back here in half an hour."

"What are you two going to do?" Amy asks grumpily.

"What we always do. Stay out of trouble. Badly."

We start to walk away when Amy shouts out, "So is this how it works, doctor? You never interfere in the affairs of other peoples or planets, unless there's children crying?"

"Yes."

With that I follow the doctor as he walks away.


	2. The Beast Below Part Two

**The Beast Below Part Two**

I climb down the ladder after the doctor. The doctor starts feeling the walls.

"Can't be." The doctor murmurs.

He takes a thin metal object out of his pocket and it makes a weird noise. "What's that?" I ask him.

"This? It's my screwdriver."

"No, it's not."

"Yes, it is."

"That's not a screwdriver."

"It's a sonic one."

I look at the floor and spot a glass of water on the floor. I look back up and there's a woman standing there with a mask on.

"The impossible truth in a glass of water. Not many people see it. But you do, don't you, Doctor?" The woman asks the doctor.

"You know me?" He asks her.

"Keep your voice down. They're everywhere. Tell me what you see in the glass."

"Who says I see anything?"

"Don't waste time. At the marketplace, you placed a glass of water on the floor, looked at it, then came straight here to the engine room. Why?"

"No engine vibration on deck. Ship this size, engine this big, you'd feel it. The water would move. So, I thought I'd take a look. It doesn't make sense. These power couplings, they're not connected. Look. Look, they're dummies, see? And behind this wall, nothing. It's hollow. If I didn't know better, I'd say there was"

"No engine at all." They both finish.

"But it's working. This ship is travelling though space. I saw it."

"The impossible truth, Doctor. We're travelling among the stars in a spaceship that could never fly."

"How?"

"I don't know. There's a darkness at the heart of this nation. It threatens every one of us. Help us, Doctor. You're our only hope. Your friend is safe. This will take you to her. Now go, quickly!"

The woman gives something to the doctor and starts to leave.

"Who are you? How do I find you again?" The doctor asks her.

"I am Liz Ten, and I will find you." She tells him.

I follow the doctor inside the room that Amy's in.

"Listen to me. This isn't a trick. This is for real." The amy on the telly is saying.

"Amy?" The doctor asks her.

"You've got to find the Doctor." The amy on the telly says.

Amy presses a button and the telly turns off.

"What have you done?" The doctor asks her.

The doctor points his screwdriver at the ceiling and it makes that weird noise.

"Yeah, your basic memory wipe job. Must have erased about twenty minutes." He tells Amy.

"But why would I choose to forget?" She asks him.

"Because everyone does. Everyone chooses the Forget button." Mandy tells us. _Everyone?_

"Did you?" The doctor asks her.

"I'm not eligible to vote yet. I'm twelve. Any time after you're sixteen, you're allowed to the see the film and make your choice. And then once every five years."

"And once every five years, everyone chooses to forget what they've learned. Democracy in action."

"How do you not know about this? Are you Scottish too?"

"Oh, I'm way worse than Scottish. I can't even see the movie. Won't play for me."

"It played for me." Amy tells him.

"The difference being the computer doesn't accept me as human."

"Why not? You look human."

"No, you look Time Lord. We came first."

"You're an alien?" I ask him.

"Didn't I mention?"

"No!"

"Oh well, I'm a time lord, I've got two hearts and I have this handy little trick that lets me cheat death. Any other questions?"

"So there are other Time Lords, yeah?" Amy asks him.

"No. There were, but there aren't. Just me now. Long story. There was a bad day. Bad stuff happened. And you know what? I'd love to forget it all, every last bit of it, but I don't. Not ever. Because this is what I do, every time, every day, every second. This. Hold tight. We're bringing down the government." The doctor tells her befor hitting the protest button, the doors shut. The Smiling guy turns his head and becomes angry and the floor opens up to reveal the long drop.

I grab the doctor's hand. "Doctor! I'm scared." I tell him.

"It's okay Izzy. I promise nothing bad will happen to you."

I squeeze his hand tighter and try to be a bit more brave.

"Say wheee!" The doctor tells Amy.

"Argh!" Amy screams.

I fall with the doctor into a weird liquid filled with rubbish. Amy then falls with a scream.

"Eew! This is gross!" I tell the both of them.

"Argh! High speed air cannon. Lousy way to travel." The doctor says.

"Where are we?" Amy asks him.

"Six hundred feet down, twenty miles laterally, puts us at the heart of the ship. I'd say Lancashire. What's this then, a cave? Can't be a cave. Looks like a cave."

"It's a rubbish dump, and it's minging!"

"Yes, but only food refuse. Organic, coming through feeder tubes from all over the ship."

"The floor's all squidgy, like a water bed."

"But feeding what, though?"

"It's sort of rubbery, feel it. Wet and slimy."

"It's not a floor." I tell them.

"What is it then?" Amy asks me.

"It's a mouth."

"A mouth?"

"Yeah."

"This is a mouth. This whole place is a mouth? We're in a mouth?"

"Yes, yes, yes. But on the plus side, roomy." The doctor says.

"How do we get out?" Amy asks him.

"How big is this beastie? It's gorgeous. Blimey, if this is just the mouth, I'd love to see the stomach. Though not right now."

"Doctor, how do we get out?"

"Okay, it's being fed through surgically implanted feeder tubes, so the normal entrance is closed for business."

I look in front of me and see teeth. My eyes widen.

"We could try, though." Amy insists.

"No, stop, don't move." The doctor tells her. The floor starts to move. "Too late. It's started."

"What has?"

"Swallow reflex."

"What are you doing?"

"I'm vibrating the chemo-receptors."

"Chemo-what?"

"The eject button."

"How does a mouth have an eject button?"

"Think about it!"

"Eeew!" I can't help but shout.

"Right, then. This isn't going to be big on dignity. Geronimo!" The doctor shouts.

"There's nothing broken, there's no sign of concussion and yes, you are covered in sick." The doctor tells us.

"This is disgusting." I tell the doctor.

"Where are we?" Amy asks him.

"Overspill pipe, at a guess." He tells her.

"Oh, God, it stinks."

"Oh, that's not the pipe."

"Oh. Phew. Can we get out?"

"One door, one door switch, one condition. We forget everything we saw. Look familiar?"

It'a an forget button.

"That's the carrot. Ooo, here's the stick." The doctor says.

The boxes with the smiling guys in them light up.

"There's a creature living in the heart of this ship. What's it doing there?" The doctor asks them.

They turn their heads and they look sad.

"No, that's not going to work on me, so come on. Big old beast below decks, and everyone who protests gets shoved down its throat. That how it works?"

The sad guys turn their heads and become angry.

"Oh, stop it. I'm not leaving and I'm not forgetting, and what are you fellows going to do about it? Stick out your tongues, huh?"

The boxes open and the angry guys walk out.

"Doctor?" Amy asks him, I can't help but feel scared.

Liz steps up between the Doctor and Amy, and shoots the angry guys.

"Look who it is. You look a lot better without your mask." The doctor says.

"You must be Amy. Liz. Liz Ten." Liz says to Amy.

"Hi." Amy says.

"Yuck. Lovely hair, Amy. Shame about the sick. You know Mandy, yeah? She's very brave." Liz says.

"How did you find us?" The doctor asks her.

"Stuck my gizmo on you. Been listening in. Nice moves on the hurl escape. So, what's the big fella doing here?"

"You're over sixteen, you've voted. Whatever this is, you've chosen to forget about it."

"No. Never forgot, never voted, not technically a British subject."

"Then who and what are you, and how do you know me?"

"You're a bit hard to miss, love. Mysterious stranger, M O consistent with higher alien intelligence, hair of an idiot. I've been brought up on the stories. My whole family was."

"Your family?"

"They're repairing. Doesn't take them long. Let's move."

"The Doctor. Old drinking buddy of Henry Twelve. Tea and scones with Liz Two. Vicky was a bit on the fence about you, weren't she? Knighted and exiled you on the same day. And so much for the Virgin Queen, you bad, bad boy." Liz says.

"Liz Ten."

"Liz Ten, yeah. Elizabeth the Tenth. And down!"

She turns, we all duck, and she shoots the repaired angry guys again.

"I'm the bloody Queen, mate. Basically, I rule." Liz says.

We walk down a corridor.

"There's a high-speed Vator through there. Oh, yeah. There's these things." Tentacles hitting the metal bars. "Any ideas?" Liz asks the doctor.

"Doctor, I saw one of these up top. There was a hole in the road, like it had burst through like a root." Amy tells him.

"Exactly like a root. It's all one creature, the same one we were inside, reaching out. It must be growing through the mechanisms of the entire ship." He tells her.

"What, like an infestation? Someone's helping it. Feeding it. Feeding my subjects to it. Come on. Got to keep moving." Liz says, she sounds angry, she walks off with Mandy.

"Doctor?" Amy asks.

"Oh, Amy. We should never have come here." He tells her.

"Why all the glasses?" The doctor asks Liz.

"To remind me every single day that my government is up to something, and it's my duty to find out what." She tells him.

"A queen going undercover to investigate her own kingdom?"

"Secrets are being kept from me. I don't have a choice. Ten years I've been at this. My entire reign. And you've achieved more in one afternoon."

"How old were you when you came to the throne?"

"Forty. Why?"

"What, you're fifty now? No way." Amy says.

"Yeah, they slowed my body clock. Keeps me looking like the stamps." Liz tells Amy.

"And you always wear this in public?" The doctor asks Liz.

"Undercover's not easy when you're me. The autographs, the bunting." Liz tells us.

"Air-balanced porcelain. Stays on by itself, because it's perfectly sculpted to your face."

"Yeah? So what?"

"Oh, Liz. So everything."

Some guys walk into the room, they've got black cloaks on.

"What are you doing? How dare you come in here?" Liz asks them.

"Ma'am, you have expressed interest in the interior workings of Starship UK. You will come with us now." One of the guys tells her.

"Why would I do that?"

The guy turns into one of the angry guys.

"How can they be Smilers?" Amy asks. _So that's what they're called._

"Half Smiler, half human." The doctor tells her.

"Whatever you creatures are, I am still your queen. On whose authority is this done?" Liz asks the smiler.

"The highest authority, Ma'am." He tells her.

"I am the highest authority."

"Yes, ma'am. You must go now, Ma'am."

"Where?"

"The Tower, Ma'am."


	3. Author's note

Hey guys, so just to let you know, I will be updating at some point today, also Izzy starts off with being eight years old and she goes home after every adventure, this may change later on. There will also be a time gap between each adventure, this may also change later on. That's all for now. I hope you're enjoying it so far.


	4. Chapter Three: The Beast Below Part 3

**The Beast Below Part Three** "Doctor, where are we?" Amy asks him.

"The lowest point of Starship UK. The dungeon." He tells her.

"Ma'am." An old man says to Liz.

"Hawthorne. So this is where you hid yourself away. I think you've got some explaining to do." Liz tells the old man.

"There's children down here. What's all that about?" The doctor asks Hawthorne.

"Protesters and citizens of limited value are fed to the beast. For some reason, it won't eat the children. You're the first adults it's spared. You're very lucky." He tells them.

"Yeah, look at us. Torture chamber of the Tower of London. Lucky, lucky, lucky. Except it's not a torture chamber, is it? Well, except it is. Except it isn't. Depends on your angle." The doctor says.

The top of a brain is in the middle of the room, with a metal machine pointing down at it.

"What's that?" Liz asks.

"Well, like I say, it depends on the angle. It's either the exposed pain centre of big fella's brain, being tortured relentlessly." The doctor tells us.

"Or?"

"Or it's the gas pedal, the accelerator. Starship UK's go faster button."

"I don't understand."

"Oh no." I whisper.

The doctoe glances at me before talking to Liz.

"Don't you? Try to. Go on. The spaceship that could never fly. No vibration on deck. This creature, this poor, trapped, terrified creature. It's not infesting you, it's not invading, it's what you have instead of an engine. And this place down here is where you hurt it, where you torture it, day after day, just to keep it moving. Tell you what. Normally, it's above the range of human hearing. This is the sound none of you wanted to hear."

The Doctor sonics a tentacle. Screaming. The creature is screaming in pain. I try to cover my ears to block out the sound.

"Stop it. Who did this?" Liz asks Hawthorne.

"We act on instructions from the highest authority." He tells her.

"I am the highest authority. The creature will be released, now. I said now! Is anyone listening to me?"

"Liz. Your mask." The doctor says to Liz.

"What about my mask?"

"Look at it. It's old. At least two hundred years old, I'd say."

"Yeah? It's an antique. So?"

"An antique that's perfectly sculpted to your face? I'm only eight, but I don't see how that's possible." I tell her.

"Yeah, an antique made by craftsmen over two hundred years ago and perfectly sculpted to your face. They slowed your body clock, all right, but you're not fifty. Nearer three hundred. And it's been a long old reign." The doctor tells her.

"Nah, it's ten years. I've been on this throne ten years." Liz insists.

"Ten years. And the same ten years, over and over again, always leading you here."

The doctor leads her over to a telly, where there are two buttons, Forget and Abdicate.

"What have you done?"

"Only what you have ordered. We work for you, Ma'am. The Winders, the Smilers, all of us." Hawthorne tells Liz.

"If you are watching this. If I am watching this, then I have found my way to the Tower Of London. The creature you are looking at is called a Star Whale. Once, there were millions of them. They lived in the depths of space and, according to legend, guided the early space travellers through the asteroid belts. This one, as far as we are aware, is the last of its kind. And what we have done to it breaks my heart. The Earth was burning. Our sun had turned on us and every other nation had fled to the skies. Our children screamed as the skies grew hotter. And then it came, like a miracle. The last of the Star Whales. We trapped it, we built our ship around it, and we rode on its back to safety. If you wish our voyage to continue, then you must press the Forget button. Be again the heart of this nation, untainted. If not, press the other button. Your reign will end, the Star Whale will be released, and our ship will disintegrate. I hope I keep the strength to make the right decision." The Liz on the telly says. I watch it in horror.

"I voted for this. Why would I do that?" Amy asks the doctor.

"Because you knew if we stayed here, I'd be faced with an impossible choice. Humanity or the alien. You took it upon yourself to save me from that. And that was wrong. You don't ever decide what I need to know." He tells her.

"I don't even remember doing it.

"You did it. That's what counts."

"I'm, I'm sorry."

"Oh, I don't care. When I'm done here, you're going home."

"Doctor! She doesn't even remember." He doesn't even look at me.

"Why? Because I made a mistake? One mistake? I don't even remember doing it. Doctor!" Amy insists.

"Yeah, I know. You're only human."

"What are you doing?" Liz asks him.

"The worst thing I'll ever do. I'm going to pass a massive electrical charge through the Star Whale's brain. Should knock out all its higher functions, leave it a vegetable. The ship will still fly, but the whale won't feel it." He tells her.

"That'll be like killing it." Amy says

'Look, three options. One, I let the Star Whale continue in unendurable agony for hundreds more years. Two, I kill everyone on this ship. Three, I murder a beautiful, innocent creature as painlessly as I can. And then I find a new name, because I won't be the Doctor any more."

"There must be something we can do, some other way." Liz says.

"Nobody talk to me. Nobody human has anything to say to me today!" My eyes begin to fill with tears, the doctor looks at me when he hears me sob.

"Oh Izzy, come here. I didn't mean you. Never you." He tells me as he takes me in his arms.

Amy walks over to a chair and sits down.

I stay in the doctor's arms until my cryinh stops. "Are you okay now?" The doctor asks me.

"Yeah, I'm fine now." I tell him. He gives me a smile before walking over to the machine.

"Doctor, stop. Whatever you're doing, stop it now! Sorry, Your Majesty. Going to need a hand." Amy tells the doctor before getting up and going over to Liz. Amy drags Liz to the voting buttons.

"Amy, no! No!" The doctor shouts.

Amy pushes Liz's hand down on the Abdicate button.

The Whale roars. The spaceship shakes for a minute.

"Amy, what have you done?" The doctor asks Amy.

"Nothing at all. Am I right?" Amy asks.

"We've increased speed." Hawthorne says shocked.

"Yeah, well, you've stopped torturing the pilot. Got to help."

"It's still here. I don't understand." Liz says.

"The Star Whale didn't come like a miracle all those years ago. It volunteered. You didn't have to trap it or torture it. That was all just you. It came because it couldn't stand to watch your children cry. What if you were really old, and really kind and alone? Your whole race dead. No future. What couldn't you do then? If you were that old, and that kind, and the very last of your kind, you couldn't just stand there and watch children cry."

"From Her Majesty. She says there will be no more secrets on Starship UK." Amy says before holding out Liz's mask.

"Amy, you could have killed everyone on this ship." The doctor tells her.

"You could have killed a Star Whale."

"And you saved it. I know, I know."

"Amazing though, don't you think? The Star Whale. All that pain and misery and loneliness, and it just made it kind."

"But you couldn't have known how it would react."

"You couldn't. But I've seen it before. Very old and very kind, and the very, very last. Sound a bit familiar?"

They both hug.

"Hey."

"What?"

"Gotcha."

"Huh. Gotcha."

"Shouldn't we say goodbye? Won't they wonder where we went?"

"For the rest of their lives. Oh, the songs they'll write. Never mind them. Big day tomorrow."

"Sorry, what?"

"Well, it's always a big day tomorrow. We've got a time machine. I skip the little ones."

"You know what I said about getting back for tomorrow morning? Have you ever run away from something because you were scared, or not ready, or just, just because you could?"

"Once, a long time ago."

"What happened?"

"Hello."

It's at this point that I'm filled with pain, like when I was in my bedroom. "Doctor." I gasp out. The doctor takes one look at m and says, "Izzy, it's okay, don't be scared, the pain just means you're going home and you won't see me for a while." He tells me.

"I'm going home?"

"Yeah, you're going home. Goodbye Izzy."

"Goodbye Doctor." I tell him before there's a bright white light, when the light goes, I'm back in my bedroom, I look over at my brother and he hasn't noticed. I frown before going back to playing with my toys.


	5. Doomsday

**Doomsday**

 _Two years later..._

I lay there on my bed watching the end of the latest episode of doctor who. It just can't figure out that adventure with the doctor, I mean he's a fictional character on a tv show. But I can't of dreamed it, that happened before doctor who came on telly. I'm not sure if it's real or not. I watch as Rose and the doctor say their goodbyes. My eyes filled with tears as their connection gets cut off.

It's at that moment that I feel the exact same pain I felt two years ago when I got transported to the dotor. The pain soon becomes unbearable and then there's a flash of white light. I look around me and I'm in the torchwood building. _It is real. I knew it!_

"You are proof." I hear the cyberman say to the doctor.

"Of what?" The doctor asks. He glances over at me and a smile appears on his face.

"That emotions destroy you."

"Yeah, I am. Mind you, I quite like hope. Hope's a good emotion. And here it comes."

A group of black-clad commandoes pop into existence and take out the remaining cybermen in the Lever room The cyberman walks out of the office and gets zapped too. It's head explodes.

The doctor walks over to me, he crouches down. "Izzy?" he asks me.

"Yeah, we're at torchwood?"

"Yeah. How old are you?"

"Ten."

"When did you last see me?"

"Two years ago, but I think it's in your future. I've only met you once."

"Once? Oh okay, so you've never seen this face?"

"No. I know what's going to happen. You'll keep me safe, right? You said I was special and that you needed my help, that you always do."

"Of course I'll keep you safe. You're my Izzy."

"You said that last time. Do I do this a lot?"

"Yeah, you do. I've known you a long time."

"Do I ever stop?"

"I don't know." The doctor gets up and turns to group of men.

"Doctor? Good to see you again." Jake says to the doctor.

"Jake?" The doctor asks.

"The Cybermen came through from one world to another, and so did we."

"Defend this room. Chrissie, monitor communications. Kill one CyberLeader and they just download into another. Move!" Jake says to his men before they run off.

"You can't just, just, just hop from one world to another. You can't." The doctor insists.

"We just did. With these."

Large yellow medallions on chains around their necks. He throws one to the Doctor. I grab hold of the doctor's hand knowing what's going to happen next.

"But that's impossible. You can't have this sort of technology."

"We've got our own version of Torchwood. They developed it. Do you want to come and see?" Jake presses his own button.

"No!" The doctor shouts before we're transported to the parallel world. The place is a wreck.

"Parallel Earth, parallel Torchwood. Except we found out what the Institute was doing and the People's Republic took control."

"I've got to get back. Rose is in danger, and her mother."

"That'd be Jackie. My wife in a parallel universe. And as for you, Doctor, at least this time I know who you are. I don't know who she is though." Pete says as he steps into the light.

"Right, yes, fine, hooray. But I've got to get back, right now. This is Izzy, she's very important to me."

"No, you're not in charge here. This is our world, not yours. And you're going to listen for once. When you left this world, you warned us there'd be more Cybermen. So we sealed them inside the factories."

"Except people argued. Said they were living. We should help them." Jake chips in.

"And the debate went on. But all that time, the Cybermen made plans. Infiltrated this version of Torchwood, mapped themselves onto your world, and then vanished." Peter tells the doctor.

"When was this?" The doctor asks him.

"Three years ago."

"It's taken them three years to cross the void, but we can pop to and fro in a second. Must be the sheer mass of five million Cybermen crossing all at once."

"Yeah, Mickey said you'd rattle off that sort of stuff."

"Oh, where is the Mickey boy?"

"He went ahead first. Any chance to go and find Miss Rose Tyler."

"She's your daughter. You do know that? Did Mickey explain?"

"She's not mine. She's the child of a dead man. Look at it, a world of peace. They're calling this The Golden Age."

"Who's the President now?"

"A woman called Harriet Jones."

"Oof. I'd keep an eye on her."

"But it's a lie. Temperatures have risen by two degrees in the past six months. The ice caps are melting. They're saying all this is going to be flooded. That's not just global warming, is it?"

"No."

"It's the breach."

"I've been trying to tell you. Travel between parallel worlds is impossible. Then the Daleks break down the walls with a Sphere."

"Daleks?"

"Then the Cybermen travelled across, then you lot. Those discs. Every time you jump from one reality to another, you rip a hole in the universe. This planet is starting to boil. Keep going and both worlds will fall into the Void."

"But you can stop it? The famous Doctor. You can seal the breach?"

"Leaving five million Cybermen stranded on my Earth."

"That's your problem. I'm protecting this world, and this world only."

"Hmm. Pete Tyler. I knew you when you were dead. Now here you are, fighting the fight alone. There is a chance, back on my world, Jackie Tyler might still be alive."

"My wife died."

"Her husband died. Good match."

"There's more important things at stake. Doctor, help us."

"What, close the breach? Stop the Cybermen? Defeat the Daleks? Do you believe I can do that?"

"Yes."

"Maybe that's all I need. Off we go, then!"

We transport back to the doctor's universe.

"First of all, I need to make a phone call. You don't mind?" The doctor says.

"You two, guard to door." Jake tells two of his men.

"Jackie, you're alive. Listen." The doctor says to Jackie on the phone. "Shush. Listen, tell me. Where are you? Yeah, which one? Is there any sort of sign? Anything to identify it? Yeah, that helps. North corner, staircase three. Just keep low, we're trying our best. I've got to go. I'm sorry." The doctor puts the phone down. "Jacqueline Andrea Suzette Tyler."

"She's not my wife." Pete insists.

"I was at the wedding. You got her name wrong. Now then, Jakey boy, if I can open up the bonding chamber on this thing, it'll work on polycarbite."

"What's polycarbite?" Jake asks him.

"Skin of a Dalek."

I watch as the doctor waves a piece of paper around a corner.

"Sorry. No white flag. I only had a sheet of A4. Same difference." The doctor says as he walks around the corner.

"Do you surrender?" A cyberman asks him.

"I surrender unto you. A very good idea."

As I wait outside of the room that Rose and Mickey are in, I listen to their conversation.

"The Emperor survived?" One of the daleks asks.

"Till he met me. Because if these are going to be my last words, then you're going to listen. I met the Emperor, and I took the Time Vortex and I pulled it into his head and turned him into dust. Do you get that? The God of all Daleks, and I destroyed him. Ha!" Rose laughs.

"You will be exterminated!" The dalek exclaims.

"Oh now, hold on, wait a minute." The doctor says. I can't help but smile, he does love to show off.

"Alert, alert. You are the Doctor."

"Sensors report he is unarmed." Another dalek says.

"That's me. Always." The doctor says.

"Then you are powerless." The main dalek says.

"Not me. Never. How are you?'

"Oh, same old, you know." Rose says.

"Good. And Mickity McMickey. Nice to see you!"

"And you, boss." Mickey replies.

"Social interaction will cease!" One of the daleks demand.

"How did you survive the Time War?" The main dalek asks the doctor.

"By fighting. On the front line. I was there at the fall of Arcadia. Someday I might even come to terms with that. But you lot ran away!" The doctor tells them.

"We had to survive."

"The last four Daleks in existence. So what's so special about you?"

"Doctor, they've got names. I mean, Daleks don't have names, do they? One of them said they" Rose is cut off by one of the daleks.

"I am Dalek Thay."

"Dalek Sek." The main dalek says.

"Dalek Jast."

"Dalek Caan."

"So that's it! At last. The Cult of Skaro. I thought you were just a legend." The doctor says to them.

"Who are they?" Rose asks the doctor.

"A secret order above and beyond the Emperor himself. Their job was to imagine, think as the enemy thinks. Even dared to have names. All to find new ways of killing."

"But that thing, they said it was yours. I mean, Time Lords. They built it. What does it do?" Mickey asks.

"I don't know. Never seen it before."

"But it's Time Lord." Rose insists.

"Both sides had secrets. What is it? What have you done?"

"Time Lord science will restore Dalek supremacy." dalek sek tells the doctor.

"What does that mean? What sort of Time Lord science? What do you mean?"

"They said one touch from a time traveller will wake it up." Rose tells the doctor.

"Technology using the one thing a Dalek can't do. Touch. Sealed inside your casing. Not feeling anything ever, from birth to death, locked inside a cold metal cage. Completely alone. That explains your voice. No wonder you scream."

"The Doctor will open the Ark!" Dalek sek demands.

"The Doctor will not."

"You have no way of resisting."

"Well, you got me there. Although there is always this."

"A sonic probe?"

"That's screwdriver."

"It is harmless."

"Oh, yes. Harmless is just the word. That's why I like it. Doesn't kill, doesn't wound, doesn't maim. But I'll tell you what it does do. It is very good at opening doors."

The door to the laboratory blows in. Jake and a cyberman walk through the hole.

"Delete! Delete! Delete! Delete!" The cyberman says.

"Alert. Casing impaired. Casing impaired." one of the daleks says.

"Rose, get out!" The doctor tells her.

"Fire power insufficient! Fire power insufficient!" Dalek sek says.

I creep into the room and I watch as Rose stumbles. Pete helps her up. "Come on." He says to her.

Mickey dives for his big gun.

"Daleks will be deleted. Delete. Delete." A cyberman says.

"Mickey, come on!" Rose shouts.

"Adapt to weaponry." a dalek says.

"Fire power restored!" Dalek sek says.

It kills a Cyberman. Mickey gets jostled and he puts out his hand to steady himself. It touches the Ark. He and Jake join the Doctor, Rose and Pete at an emergency blast door. I quickly run overto them and the doctor grabs hold of my hand.

"Jake, check the stairwell. The rest of you, come on." The doctor says.

"I just fell, I didn't mean it!" Mickey tries to explain.

"Mickey, without us, they'd have opened it by force. To do that, they'd have blown up the sun. You've done us a favour. Now, run!" The doctor tells him.

Jackie runs into a corridor and meets two cyberman just as we walk around the corner.

"You will be upgraded." A cyberman says to Jackie.

"No, but you can't. Please." She pleads with them.

Pete shoots the cyberman

"Pete?" Jackie asks.

"Hello, Jacks." Pete says to her.

"I said there were ghosts, but that's not fair. Why him?"

"I'm not a ghost."

"But you're dead. You died twenty years ago, Pete."

"It's Pete from a different universe. There are parallel worlds, Jackie. Every single decision we make creates a parallel existence, a different dimension where" The doctor is cut off by Jackie.

"Oh, you can shut up. Oh, you look old."

"You don't." Pete says to her.

"How can you be standing there?"

"I just got lucky. Lived my life. You were left on your own. You didn't marry again, or"

"There was never anyone else. Twenty years, though. Look at me. I never left that flat. Did nothing with myself."

"You brought her up. Rose Tyler. That's not bad."

"Yeah."

"In my world, it worked. All those daft little plans of mine, they worked. Made me rich."

"I don't care about that. How rich?"

"Very."

"I don't care about that. How very?"

"Thing is though, Jacks, you're not my wife. I'm sorry, but you're not. I mean, we both. You know, it's just sort of. Oh, come here."

Pete puts down the gun and she runs into his arms.

The Doctor looks carefully inside the warehouse, then crawls over to a crate and grabs a pair of Magnaclamps before dodging laser fire to get back.

"Come on, please." Rose says.

"Cover me." One of the soldiers says.

The Doctor looks back in again with his 3D glasses.

"Override roof mechanism." Dalek sek says. The warehouse roof shutters start to slide back. "Elevate."

"What're they doing? Why do they need to get outside??" Rose asks the doctor.

"Time Lord science. What Time Lord science? What is it?" The doctor asks.

The Ark and the Dalek Sek glide up and out into Canary Wharf.

"We've got to see what it's doing. We've got to go back up. Come on! All of you. top floor!" The doctor tells everyone.

"That's forty five floors up! Believe me, I've done them all." Jackie tries to argue.

"We could always take the lift." Jake suggests.

Once we get back upstairs to the office, the Doctor gets to the window in time to see the Ark shooting out Daleks in all directions as it spins around.

"Time Lord science. It's bigger on the inside." The doctor says to himself.

"Did the Time Lords put those Daleks in there? What for?" Mickey asks him.

"It's a prison ship."

"How many Daleks?" Rose asks the doctor.

"Millions."

The Daleks spread out over London as Cybermen clomp their way through the streets before stopping and shooting into the sky.

"I'm sorry, but you've had it. This world's going to crash and burn. There's nothing we can do. We're going home." Pete says. Pete takes a yellow medallion from a commando. "Jacks, take this. You're coming with us."

"But they're destroying the city." Jackie protests.

"I'd forgotten you could argue. It's not just London, it's the whole world. But there's another world just waiting for you, Jacks. And it's safe as long as the Doctor closes the breach. Doctor?"

The Doctor turns around, wearing his 3D glasses. "Oh, I'm ready. I've got the equipment right here. Thank you, Torchwood." The Doctor uses a computer. "Slam it down and close off both universes."

"But we can't just leave. What about the Daleks? And the Cybermen?" Rose asks.

"They're part of the problem, and that makes them part of the solution. Oh yes! Well? Isn't anyone going to ask what is it with the glasses?" The doctor asks.

"What is it with the glasses?'

"I can see, that's what. because we've got two separate worlds, but in between the two separate worlds, we've got the Void. That's where the Daleks were hiding. And the Cybermen travelled through the Void to get here. And you lot, one world to another, via the Void. Oh, I like that. Via the Void. Look."

He gives the glasses to Rose.

"I've been through it. Do you see?" The doctor says.

"What is it?" Rose asks him.

"Void stuff."

"Like er, background radiation."

"That's it. Look at the others. And the only one who hasn't been through the Void, your mother. First time she's looked normal all in her life."

"Oi." Jackie complains.

"But the Daleks lived inside the Void. They're bristling with it. Cybermen, all of them. I just open the Void and reverse. The Void stuff gets sucked back inside." The doctor tells everyone.

"Pulling them all in!" Rose shouts.

"Pulling them all in!"

"Sorry, what's the Void?" Mickey asks.

"The dead space. Some people call it Hell."

"So you're sending the Daleks and Cybermen to Hell. Man, I told you he was good."

"But it's like you said. We've all got Void stuff. Me too, because we went to that parallel world. We're all contaminated. We'll get pulled in." Rose tells the doctor.

"That's why you've got to go." He tells her. He turns to me.

"Don't even think about it." I tell him with a glare and my hands on my hips.

"Back to Pete's world. Hey, we should call it that. Pete's World. I'm opening the Void, but only on this side. You'll be safe on that side." He says ignoring me.

"And then you close it, for good?" Pete asks him.

"The breach itself is soaked in Void stuff. In the end it'll close itself. And that's it. Kaput."

"But you stay on this side?" Rose asks ignoring me. I narrow my eyes at her. I can'y help but feel insulted.

"But you'll get pulled in." Mickey tells him.

"That's why I got these. We'll just have to hold on tight. I've been doing it all my life." he says grabbing hold of the clamps.

"I'm supposed to go." Rose says.

"Yeah."

"To another world, and then it gets sealed off."

"Yeah."

"Forever. That's not going to happen."

The building starts to shake and I can't help but feel scared.

"We haven't got time to argue. The plan works. We're going. You too. All of us." Pete tells everyone.

"No, I'm not leaving here." Rose insists.

"I'm not going without her." Jackie says.

"Oh, my God. We're going!" Pete shouts.

"I've had twenty years without you, so button it. I'm not leaving her."

"You've got to." Rose tells her.

"Well, that's tough."

"Mum. I've had a life with you for nineteen years, but then I met the Doctor, and all the things I've seen him do for me, for you, for all of us. For the whole stupid planet and every planet out there. He does it alone, mum. Izzy isn't always there. But not anymore, because now he's got me."

I watch as the Doctor puts a medallion around Rose's neck and Pete presses his button.

"What're you" Rose doesn't get to finnish what she's saying as she disapears.

"She's gonna come back you know." I tell the doctor.

He looks over at me and opens his mouth but before he can say a word, Rose appears.

"I think this is the on switch." She says.

"Once the breach collapses, that's it. You will never be able to see her again. Your own mother!" The doctor tries to tell Rose.

"I made my choice a long time ago, and I'm never going to leave you. So what can I do to help?"

"Those coordinates over there, set them all at six. And hurry up."

Rose goes to the terminal and takes her medallion off. "We've got Cybermen on the way up." She tells the doctor.

"How many floors down?"

"Just one."

"Levers operational." The computer says.

"That's more like it. Bit of a smile. The old team." Rose says to the doctor.

"Hope and Glory, Mutt and Jeff, Shiver and Shake." He says.

"Which one's Shiver?"

"Oh, I'm Shake."

The Doctor gives Rose a Magnaclamp and they put them on the walls by the levers. "Press the red button." He tells her.

"When it starts, just hold on tight. Shouldn't be too bad for us but the Daleks and the Cybermen are steeped in Void stuff. Are you ready?" The doctor asks her.

"So are they." She tells him.

I look at the window and there Daleks are hovering outside, "Doctor!" I call.

"Let's do it!" He says.

I run over to the clamp next to the doctor and I grab hold of it, Rose and the doctor push the levers up then grab the Magnaclamps.

"Online." The computer says.

A bright light comes out of the breach and a strong wind rushes into it, sucking the first Daleks through the windows and into itself.

"Emergency!" The Daleks say.

"The breach is open! Into the Void! Ha!" The doctor yells happily.

Cybermen all over the world are lifted off their feet and into the air. There is a steady stream of Daleks and Cybermen all being sucked through the one broken window into the Void.

"Offline." The computer says.

The suction starts to decrease. Rose has to let go of the Magnaclamp to grab the lever and pull it, but she and it are being dragged the wrong way.

"I've got to get it upright!" she shouts.

Somehow she manages it.

"Online and locked." The computer says.

The suction builds back up.

"Rose, hold on! Hold on!" The doctor shouts.

Rose is being pulled horizontally towards the Void. The Doctor can't reach her as her fingers finally slip from the lever handle. Then Pete appears, catches her and vanishes with his daughter in his arms. The wind dies down and the Void closes itself like paper down a plughole.

"Systems closed." The computer says.

The Doctor walks over to the wall and leans his head and hand against it, I walk over to him. "Doctor?" I ask him.

He turna around, looks at me and then gets up. "Did you know?" he asks me in a dark voice.

"Yes." I whisper.

"Why didn't you tell me?!"

"I-I'm sorry I couldn't. This is a fixed point. It was always go to happen."

"You're right. I'm sorry Izzy. I shouldn't have shouted at you."

"It's okay Doctor."

I start to feel that pain again. "Doctor, it's starting." I tell him.

"It's okay, you're going to be fine and you'll see me again soon." he tells me.

"Goodbye doctor." I tell him as the pain becomes unbearable.

"Goodbye Izzy."

With that, there's a bright light and I'm transported back to my room.


	6. Author's note (09-03 07:33:36)

Sorry for the wait guys, I don't have any internet at the moment, but I will update as soon as possible. I should have another chapter up by the end of the week.


	7. Daleks in Manhattan Part One

**Daleks In Manhatta** **n Part One**

 _One year later..._

I turn up the volume on the telly to try and block out the sound of her music. It's been like this for the last six months. Ever since the accident, mum's been drinking, it's why dad left.

Lately, she's been getting worse, I look down at the bruise on my stomach, it's still sore to the touch. I go downstairs, "mum?" I call, nervous.

"What do you want?!" she slurs. _Great, she's already drunk._

I walk into the living room, "can you turn the music off please?" I ask her.

"You cheeky cow!!" she yells at me. She grabs my arm so hard that I can't help but cry out in pain.

"I'm sorry." I can't help but cry.

"Get the fuck out of here." She tells me as she lets go of my arm, I run straight out of the room and upstairs into my bedroom. I sit down on my bed and look down at my arm, at the bruise that's starting to form.

That familiar pain starts going through my body. I can't help but feel relieved. I wait for the pain to get worse and suddenly there's a flash of white before I'm transported to the doctor again. I appear in front of the doctor and Martha. In front of me is the empire state building. I can't help but look up at the statue in awe.

"I wonder what year it is, because look, the Empire State Building's not even finished yet." Martha says.

"Work in progress. Still got a couple floors to go, and if I know my history, that makes the date somewhere around" The doctor tells her.

Martha picks up a copy of the New York Record which is lying on a bench. "November first 1930."

"You're getting good at this."

"Eighty years ago. It's funny, because you see all those old newsreels all in black and white like it's so far away, but here we are. It's real. It's now. Come on then, you. Where do you want to go first?"

"I think our detour just got longer."

"Hooverville Mystery Deepens. What's Hooverville?"

"Doctor?" I call out. He looks over at me and a huge smile appears on his face.

"Izzy!" He exclaims before coming over to me and taking me in his arms. He lets go of me and takes a good look at me. "Blimey. You're young. Last time I saw you this young was at Canary Wharf."

"That's where I was last."

"Oh. How old are you now?"

"Eleven."

"Fancy coming on an adventure with us?"

"Definitely."

"Herbert Hoover, thirty first President of the USA, came to power a year ago. Up till then New York was a boom town, the Roaring Twenties, and then." The doctor tells us.

"The Wall Street Crash, yeah? When was that, 1929?" Martha asks him.

"Yeah. Whole economy wiped out overnight. Thousands of people unemployed. All of a sudden, the huddled masses doubled in number with nowhere to go. So, they ended up here in Central Park."

"What, they actually live in the park? In the middle of the city?"

"Ordinary people lost their jobs. Couldn't pay the rent and they lost everything. There are places like this all over America. No one's helping them. You only come to Hooverville when there's nowhere else to go."

"You thieving lowlife!" A man shouts.

Two men start to fight and shout at each other.

A man comes out of a tent. "Cut that out! Cut that out right now!" He yells. He breaks up the fight. If I remember correctly, he's called Solomon.

"He stole my bread!" One of the men fighting says.

"That's enough! Did you take it?" Solomon asks the other man.

"I don't know what happened. He just went crazy." He tells Solomon.

"That's enough! Now, think real careful before you lie to me."

"I'm starving, Solomon."

Soloman holds out his hand, and the man he's talking to takes the bread out from inside his coat.

"We are all starving. We all got families somewhere." Soloman says to him. He gives each man half of the loaf. "No stealing and no fighting. You know the rules. Thirteen years ago I fought in the Great War. A lot of us did. And the only reason we got through was because we stuck together. No matter how bad things get, we still act like human beings. It's all we got."

The two fighters walk away.

"Come on." The doctor turns to Solomon. "I suppose that makes you the boss around here."

"And, er, who might you be?"

"He's the Doctor. I'm Martha." Martha tells Solomon.

"A doctor. Huh. Well, we got stockbrokers, we got a lawyer, but you're the first doctor. Neighbourhood gets classier by the day."

"How many people live here?"

"At any one time, hundreds. No place else to go. But I will say this about Hooverville. We are a truly equal society. Black, white, all the same. All starving. So you're welcome, both of you. But tell me. Doctor, you're a man of learning, right? Explain this to me. That there's going to be the tallest building in the world. How come they can do that, when we got people starving in the heart of Manhattan?"

"So, men are going missing. Is this true?" The doctor asks Solomon.

"It's true all right."

"But what does missing mean? Men must come and go here all the time. It's not like anyone's keeping a register."

"Come on in. This is different."

"In what way?" Martha asks him.

"Someone takes them, at night. We hear something, someone calls out for help. By the time we get there, they're gone like they vanished into thin air."

"And you're sure someone's taking them?" The doctor asks.

"Doctor, when you got next to nothing, you hold on to the little you got. Your knife, blanket, you take it with you. You don't leave bread uneaten, fire still burning."

"Have you been to the police?" Martha asks.

"Yeah, we tried that. Another deadbeat goes missing, big deal."

"So the question is, who's taking them and what for?" The doctor asks.

"I know." I tell him.

"Who?"

"I can't tell you."

"What about a hint?"

"A hint? Your worst nightmare." The doctor frowns at me whilw trying to think what I could mean.

"Solomon!" Someone shouts. A young man walks in. "Solomon, Mister Diagoras is here."

"I need men. Volunteers. I've got a little work for you and you sure look like you can use the money." The man who's helpinh the Daleks says.

"Yeah. What is the money?" The man who I remember to be called Frank asks.

"A dollar a day."

"What's the work?" Solomon asks.

"A little trip down the sewers. Got a tunnel collapsed needs clearing and fixing. Any takers?"

"A dollar a day? That's slave wage. And men don't always come back up, do they."

"Accidents happen."

"What do you mean? What sort of accidents?" The doctor asks.

"You don't need the work? That's fine. Anybody else?"

The Doctor raises his hand.

"Enough with the questions." The man says.

"Oh, no, no, no. I'm volunteering. I'll go." The doctor says.

Martha raises her hand. "I'll kill you for this." She tells the doctor.

"Anybody else?" The man asks.

"I'm coming with you." I tell the doctor.

"No, you're not."

"You forget. I know what happens. I'll be fine."

"I said no."

"I'm going to come anyway."

Frank and Solomon volunteer as well.

We go into the sewers. "Turn left. Go about a half a mile. Follow tunnel two seven three. Fall's right ahead of you, you can't miss it." That man tells us.

"And when do we get our dollar?" Frank asks him.

"When you come back up."

"And if we don't come back up?" The doctor asks.

"Then I got no one to pay."

"Don't worry, we'll be back." Solomon says.

"Let's hope so." Martha says.

The Doctor stares into that man's eyes for a few moments, then follows the others. I stick to his side.

"We just got to stick together. It's easy to get lost. It's like a huge rabbit warren. You could hide an army down here." Frank tells everyone.

"So what about you, Frank? You're not from around these parts, are you?" Martha asks him.

"Oh, you could talk. No, I'm Tennessee born and bred."

"So how come you're here?"

"Oh, my daddy died. Mama couldn't afford to feed us all. So, I'm the oldest, up to me to feed myself. So I put on my coat, hitched up here on the railroads. There's a whole lot of runaways in the camp, younger than me, from all over. Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas. Solomon keeps a lookout for us. So, what about you? You're a long way from home."

"Yeah, I'm just a hitcher too."

"You stick with me, you'll be all right."

"So this Diagoras bloke, who is he then?" The doctor asks. _So that's his name._ I can't even bring myself to feel sorry for him.

"A couple of months ago, he was just another foreman. Now, it seems like he's running most of Manhattan." Soloman tells him.

"How'd he manage that then?"

"These are strange times. A man can go from being King of the Hill to the lowest of the low overnight. It's just for some folks it works the other way round."

"Whoa!"

A luminous green jellyfish is lying on the ground in front of us. _Eeww!_

"Is it radioactive or something? It's gone off, whatever it is. And you've got to pick it up." Martha says.

"Shine your torch through it. Composite organic matter. Martha? Medical opinion?" The doctor asks her.

"It's not human. I know that."

"No, it's not. And I'll tell you something else. We must be at least half a mile in. I don't see any sign of a collapse, do you? So why did Mister Diagoras send us down here?"

"Where are we now? What's above us?"

"Well, we're right underneath Manhattan."


	8. Daleks in Manhattan Part Two

**Daleks in Manhattan Part Two**

"We're way beyond half a mile. There's no collapse, nothing." Solomon tells us.

"That Diagoras bloke, was he lying?" Martha asks.

"Looks like it." The doctor says.

"So why'd he want people to come down here?" Frank asks.

"Solomon, I think it's time you took these three back. I'll be much quicker on my own."

"Don't even think about it spaceman." I tell him as I glare at him. He holds his hands up in surrender.

Pig squeals echo around us.

"What the hell was that?" Solomon asks.

"Hello?" Frank calls out.

"Shush." Martha hushes him.

"Frank." Solomon says.

"What if it's one of the folk gone missing? You'd be scared and half mad down here on your own." Frank insists.

"Do you think they're still alive?" The doctor asks him.

"Heck, we ain't seen no bodies down here. Maybe they just got lost."

"I know I never heard nobody make a sound like that." Solomon says.

"Where's it coming from? Sounds like there's more than one of them."

"This way." The doctor says.

"No, that way." Solomon argues.

Solomon's torch lights up a figure crouched in a corner.

"Doctor?" Martha calls for him.

"Who are you?" Solomon asks the figure. I grab hold of the doctor's hand.

"Are you lost? Can you understand me? I've been thinking about folk lost down" Frank starts but gets interrupted by the doctor.

"It's all right, Frank. Just stay back. Let me have a look. He's got a point, though, my mate Frank. I'd hate to be stuck down here on my own. We know the way out. Daylight. If you come with us" The doctor gets cut off when he sees that the man is a pig. "Oh, but what are you?"

"Is that, er, some kind of carnival mask?" Solomon asks him.

"No, it's real. I'm sorry. Now listen to me. I promise I can help. Who did this to you?"

"Doctor? I think you'd better get back here." Martha tells him.

"You should listen to her." I tell the doctor.

More pigmen enter the tunnel.

"Doctor!" Martha yells.

"Actually, good point." The doctor says.

He walks back over to us.

"They're following you." Martha tells him.

"Yeah, I noticed that, thanks. Well then, Izzy, Martha, Frank, Solomon." The doctor says.

"What?"

"Eh? Er, basically, run!"

The pigmen chase us back to a junction.

"Where are we going?!" Martha asks the doctor.

"This way!" The doctor tells her.

He spots something down a side passage. "It's a ladder! Come on!"

The Doctor uses the sonic screwdriver to open the cover at the top. Frank grabs an iron T bar to ward off the pigmen as Martha climbs up.

"Frank! Frank!" Solomon shouts.

Solomon climbs to safety, then Frank runs to the ladder. "C'mon, Frank! C'mon!"

The pigmen grab Frank's legs. Solomon and the Doctor try to grab his hand.

"I've got you. C'mon! Come on!" The doctor tells him.

Frank is pulled down by the pigmen.

"Frank!" Solomon shouts.

"No!" The doctor yells.

Solomon pushes the Doctor away as the pigmen start to climb the ladder, and slams the lid shut. "We can't go after him."

"We've got to go back down. We can't just leave him." The doctor insists.

"No, I'm not losing anybody else. Those creatures were from Hell. From Hell itself! If we go after them, they'll take us all! There's nothing we can do. I'm sorry."

Tallulah steps out from behind a rack and points a revolver at them.

"All right, then. Put them up. Hands in the air and no funny business. Now tell me, you schmucks, what have you done with Laszlo?" She asks us.

"Who's Laszlo?" Martha asks her.

Tallulah leads us to her dressing room.

"Laszlo's my boyfriend. Or was my boyfriend until he disappeared two weeks ago. No letter, no goodbye, no nothing. And I'm not stupid. I know some guys are just pigs but not my Laszlo. I mean, what kind of guy asks you to meet his mother before he vamooses?" She asks us.

"Yeah. It might, might just help if you put that down." The doctor tells her.

"Huh? Oh, sure. Oh, come on. It's not real. It's just a prop. It was either that or a spear."

"What do you think happened to Lazlo?" Martha asks her.

"I wish I knew. One minute he's there, the next, zip. Vanished."

"Listen, ahwhat's your name?" The doctor asks her.

"Tallulah."

"Tallulah."

"Three Ls and an H."

"Right. We can try to find Laszlo, but he's not the only one. There are people disappearing every night."

"And there are creatures. Such creatures." Solomon tells her.

"What do you mean, creatures?" She asks him.

"Look, listen, just trust me. Everyone is in danger. I need to find out exactly what this is." The doctor tells her. The thing that looks like a jellyfish. "Because then I'll know exactly what we're fighting."

"Yuck."

I folliw the doctor and Solomon into the props room.

The Doctor is scavenging for parts to build a gizmo. Solomon brings a small radio.

"How about this? I found it backstage." Solomon says.

"Perfect. It's the capacitors I need. I'm just rigging up a crude little DNA scan for this beastie. If I can get a chromosomal reading, I can find out where it's from." The doctor tells him.

"How about you, Doctor? Where are you from? I've been all over. I never heard anybody talk like you. Just exactly who are you?"

"Oh, I'm just sort of passing by."

"I'm not a fool, Doctor."

"No. Sorry."

Solomon goes to the NYC sewer entrance.

"I was so scared, Doctor. I let them take Frank because I was just so scared. I got to get back to Hooverville. With these creatures on the loose, we got to protect ourselves. Ain't no one else going to help us."

"Good luck."

"I hope you find what you're looking for, for all our sakes."

The Doctor aims a spotlight onto the jellyfish, which is pinned inside his gizmo, which in turn is powered by the sonic screwdriver. "That's it. We need to heat you up."

The Doctor puts on his glasses and starts to examine it. "This is artificial. Genetically engineered. Whoever this is, oh, you're clever."

The Doctor is listening to the jellyfish with a stethoscope. "Fundamental DNA type four six seven dash nine eight nine. Nine eight nine. Hold on, that means planet of origin. Skaro."

We catch up to Tallulah.

"It was like something out of a movie show." One of the girls say.

"Oh, that face. I ain't never going to sleep." The other says.

"Where is she? Where's Martha?" The doctor asks Tallulah.

"I don't know. She ran off the stage." She tells him.

We walk into the prop room to see a pigman grab Martha from behind. She screams. We all run to her.

"Martha!" The doctor yells.

The sewer entrance lid hasn't been put back properly. The Doctor puts his coat on.

"Where are you going?" Tallulah asks him.

"They've taken her." He tells her.

"Who's taken her? What're you doing?"

The Doctor goes down into the sewers and I follow him.

"I said, what the hell are you doing?" We hear her asks from above.

"Crazy guy." She says before following us.

"No, no, no, no, no way. You're not coming." The doctor tells her. I can't help but roll my eyes at him.

"Tell me what's going on."

"There's nothing you can do. Go back."

"Look, whoever's taken Martha, they could've taken Laszlo, couldn't they?"

"Tallulah, you're not safe down here."

"Then that's my problem. Come on. Which way?" She goes down a tunnel.

"This way."

Tallulah comes back and follows him.

"When you say, they've taken her, who's they exactly? And who are you anyway? I never asked." She asks him.

"Shush." He hushes her.

"Okay, okay."

"Shush, shush, shush, shush, shush, shush, shush."

The shadow of a Dalek is cast on the wall ahead of us.

"I mean you're handsome and all"

The Doctor puts his hand over her mouth and drags her back into a service alcove until the Dalek is safely past and away. I stay glued to the Doctor's side and I don't even dare to breathe.

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no. They survived. They always survive while I lose everything." He murmurs.

"Not everything. You've still got me." I tell him.

He looks down at me and softly smiles.

"That metal thing? What was it?" Tallulah asks us.

"It's called a Dalek. And it's not just metal, it's alive." The doctor tells her.

"You're kidding me."

"Does it look like I'm kidding? Inside that shell is a creature born to hate, whose only thought is to destroy everything and everyone that isn't a Dalek too. It won't stop until it's killed every human being alive."

"But if it's not a human being, that kind of implies it's from outer space. Yet again, that's a no with the kidding. Boy. Well, what's it doing here, in New York?"

"Every second you're down here, you're in danger. I'm taking you back right now."

A pigman is round the corner. Tallulah screams and it tries to hide.

"Where's Martha? What have you done with her? What have you done with Martha?" The doctor demands to know.

"I didn't take her." Lazlo tells him. I can't help but feel bad for him.

"I'm so sorry." I whisper. The doctor glances at me before turning to Lazlo.

"Can you remember your name?" The doctor asks him.

"Don't look at me." He says.

"Do you know where she is?" Tallulah asks.

"Stay back! Don't look at me."

"What happened to you?" The doctor asks him.

"They made me a monster."

"Who did?"

"The masters."

"The Daleks. Why?"

"They needed slaves. They needed slaves to steal more people so they created us. Part animal, part human. I escaped before they got my mind, but it was still too late."

"Do you know what happened to Martha?"

"They took her. It's my fault. She was following me."

"Were you in the theatre?" Tallulah asks him.

"I never. Yes."

"Why? Why were you there?"

"I never wanted you to see me like this."

"Why me? What I got to do with this? Were you following me? Is that why you were there?"

Laszlo turns around so that Tallulah can finally see him.

"Yes."

"Who are you?"

"I was lonely."

"Who are you?"

"I needed to see you."

"Who are you?"

"I'm sorry."

"No, wait. Let me look at you. Laszlo? My Laszlo? Oh, what have they done to you?"

"I'm sorry. So sorry."

"Laszlo, can you show me where they are?" The doctor asks him.

"They'll kill you."

"If I don't stop them, they'll kill everyone."

"Then follow me."

Laszlo brings us to where we can see Martha and Frank. The pigmen get nervous.

"What're they doing? What's wrong? What's wrong?" Frank asks Martha.

"Silence. Silence." One of the Daleks says.

Laszlo hides.

"What the hell is that?" Martha asks.

"You will form a line. Move. Move." The dalek tells them.

"Just do what it says, everyone, okay? Just obey."

"The female is wise. Obey."

"Report." One of the other Daleks says.

"These are strong specimens. They will help the Dalek cause."

"Dalek?" Martha asks.

"What is the status of the Final Experiment?"

"The Dalekanium is in place. The energy conductor is now complete." The second dalek says.

"Then I will extract prisoners for selection."

A pigman drags an older man forward.

"Intelligence scan, initiate." The first dalek says. The Dalek puts its sucker onto the man's face. "Reading brain waves. Low intelligence."

"You calling me stupid?" The man asks it.

"Silence! This one will become a pig slave. Next."

"No, let go of me. I'm not becoming one of them. No! No."

He is dragged away.

"Intelligence scan. Initiate."

"They're divided into two groups. High intelligence and low intelligence. The low intelligence are taken to become pig slaves like me." Lazlo tells us.

"Well, that's not fair." Tallulah says.

"Shush." The doctor hushes her.

"You're the smartest guy I ever dated."

"And the others?"

"They're taken to the laboratory." Lazlo tells him.

"Why? What for?"

"I don't know. The masters only call it the Final Experiment."

The Dalek has scanned Frank.

"Superior intelligence." it says.

It's Martha's turn.

"Intelligence scan, initiate. Superior intelligence. This one will become part of the Final Experiment."

"You can't just experiment on people. It's insane! It's inhuman!" Martha screams at them.

"We are not human. Prisoners of high intelligence will be taken to the transgenic laboratory."

"Look out, they're moving!" The doctor says.

Laszlo leads Tallulah away. "Doctor. Doctor, quickly!"

"I'm not coming. I've got an idea. You go." The doctor tells him.

"Laszlo, come on." Tallulah pleads with him.

"Can you remember the way?" he asks her.

"Yeah, I think so."

"Then go, please."

"But Laszlo, you got to come with me."

"Where would I go? Tallulah, I'm begging you. Save yourself. Just run. Just go. Go."

Tallulah leaves. We let the Daleks glide past then join with the others.

"Just keep walking." The doctor says to Martha.

"Oh, I'm so glad to see you." She says in relief.

"Yeah, well, you can kiss me later. You too, Frank, if you want."

We end up in the dalek laboratory.

"Report." The first Dalek demands.

"Dalek Sec is in the final stage of evolution." Dalek Thay says.

"Scan him. Prepare for birth." The second Dalek says.

"Evolution?" The doctor asks.

"What's wrong with old Charlie boy over there?" Martha asks him.

"Ask them."

"What, me? Don't be daft."

"I don't exactly want to get noticed. Ask them what's going on."

"Daleks, I demand to be told. What is this Final Experiment? Report!"

"You will bear witness." The first dalek tells her.

"To what?"

"This is the dawn of a new age."

"What does that mean?"

"We are the only four Daleks in existence, so the species must evolve a life outside the shell. The Children of Skaro must walk again."

Sec's shell stops smoking and the light goes out in its eye stalk. The casing opens and a biped struggles out. The casing shuts and the biped straightens.

"What is it?" Martha asks.

It has the one-eyed head and hands of a Dalek blob, but is wearing Mister Diagoras' suit. It takes a deep breath and speaks with Diagoras' accent.

"I am a human Dalek. I am your future." Dalek Sec says.


	9. Evolution of the Daleks Part One

**Evolution Of The Daleks Part One**

"These humans will become like me. Prepare them for hybridisation." Dalek Sec says.

I follow the doctor as he sneaks away behind some equipment. The pigmen take the others.

"Leave me alone! Don't you dare!" Martha shouts.

The doctor turna on a radio and everyone hears the music it plays.

"What is that sound?" Dalek Sec asks.

"Ah, well, now, that would be me." The doctor tells him before putting the radio down by a Bunsen burner and walking up to Dalek Sec. "Hello. Surprise. Boo. Et cetera."

"Doctor."

"The enemy of the Daleks." One of the Dalek says.

"Exterminate." A different one says.

"Wait!" Sec demands.

"Well, then. A new form of Dalek. Fascinating and very clever." The doctor says.

"The Cult of Skaro escaped your slaughter."

"How did you end up in 1930?"

"Emergency temporal shift."

"Oh, that must have roasted up your power cells, huh? Time was, four Daleks could have conquered the world, but instead you're skulking away, hidden in the dark, experimenting. All of which results in you."

I walk over to the doctor and Sec's eyes land on me. "It can't be." he murmurs.

"What do you mean?" I ask him.

"Isabella Stone."

"You know me?"

"You helped destroy us."

"What? No I didn't."

"She's a child. Leave her alone." The doctor says darkly.

"I am Dalek in human form." Sec says.

"What does it feel like? You can talk to me, Dalek Sec. It is Dalek Sec, isn't it? That's your name? You've got a name and a mind of your own. Tell me what you're thinking right now."

"I feel humanity." He turns away.

"Good. That's good."

"I feel everything we wanted from mankind, which is ambition, hatred, aggression and war. Such a genius for war."

"No, that's not what humanity means."

"I think it does. At heart, this species is so very Dalek."

"All right, so what have you achieved then, with this Final Experiment, eh? Nothing! Because I can show you what you're missing with this thing. A simple little radio."

"What is the purpose of that device?" One of the other Daleks asks.

"Well, exactly. It plays music. What's the point of that? Oh, with music, you can dance to it, sing with it, fall in love to it. Unless you're a Dalek of course. Then it's all just noise."

The doctor aims his sonic screwdriver at the little radio. It emits a shriek that hurts Sec and the Daleks, and the pigmen. "Run!"

I follow the doctor as everyone runs out.

"Come on! Move, move, move, move, move!" The doctor shouts before he leads the group to where Tallulah is standing, lost. "And you, Tallulah! Run!"

"What's happened to Laszlo?" She asks us.

Martha drags Tallulah along. Laszlo hangs back as the pigmen and Daleks search the sewers. The Doctor leads the group to the ladder. "Come on! Everyone up! Come on!" he shouts.

"These Daleks, they sound like the stuff of nightmares. And they want to breed?" Solomon asks once we're back in Hooverville.

"They're splicing themselves onto human bodies, and if I'm right, they've got a farm of breeding stock right here in Hooverville. You've got to get everyone out." The doctor tells him.

"Hooverville's the lowest place a man can fall. There's nowhere else to go."

"I'm sorry, Solomon. You've got to scatter. Go anywhere. Down to the railroads, travel across state. Just get out of New York."

"There's got to be a way to reason with these things."

"There's not a chance." Martha tells Solomon.

"You ain't seen them, boss." Frank pipes up.

"Daleks are bad enough at anytime, but right now they're vulnerable. That makes them more dangerous than ever." The doctor says.

"They're coming! They're coming!" Someone shouts.

"A sentry. He must have seen something." Solomon says.

"They're here! I've seen them! Monsters! They're monsters!'

"It's started." The doctor says.

"We're under attack! Everyone to arms!" Solomon shouts to everyone.

Rifles are handed out.

"I'm ready, boss, but all of you, find a weapon! Use anything." Frank says.

Some people run away.

"Come back! We've got to stick together! It's not safe out there! Come back!" Solomon shouts.

The pigmen get into the camp and start grabbing victims.

"We need to get out of the park." Martha says.

"We can't." I tell her. She gives me a questioning look.

"They're on all sides. They're driving everyone back towards us." The doctor then tells her.

"We're trapped." Tallulah says.

"Then we stand together. Gather round. Everybody come to me. You there, Jethro, Harry, Seamus, stay together." Solomon says.

The armed men form a circle around the women, by the campfire.

"They can't take all of us." Solomon tells them.

The shooting starts.

"If we can just hold them off till daylight." Martha says.

"Oh, Martha, they're just the foot soldiers." The doctor tells her.

"Oh, my God.'

A dalek comes flying towards us. Number 3 according to its logo.

"What in this world is?" Solomon asks.

"It's the devil. A devil in the sky. God save us all. It's damnation." The sentry says.

"Oh yeah? We'll see about that!" Frank says.

Frank fires his shotgun at the Dalek. The shot bounces off with a clang.

"That's not going to work." The doctor says.

"There's more than one of them." Martha says.

A second Dalek swoops in and they start firing, blowing up the tents and anyone hiding there.

"The humans will surrender." Dalek 3 says.

"Leave them alone. They've done nothing to you!" The doctor shouts at the daleks.

Solomon steps forward.

"No, Solomon. Stay back." The doctor warns him.

"I'm told that I'm addressing the Daleks. Is that right?" Solomon asks the Daleks. "From what I hear, you're outcasts too."

"Solomon, don't!"

"Doctor, this is my township. You will respect my authority. Just let me try. Daleks, ain't we all the same? Underneath, ain't we all kin?"

Solomon puts down his rifle. "Right. See, I've just discovered this past day, God's universe is a thousand times the size I thought it was. And that scares me. Oh yeah, terrifies me right down to the bone. But surely it's got to give me hope. Hope that maybe together we can make a better tomorrow. So, I beg you now, if you have any compassion in your hearts, then you'll meet with us and stop this fight. Well? What do you say?"

"Exterminate." Dalek 3 says.

Solomon dies screaming in a burst of green energy.

"No! Solomon!" Frank shouts.

"They killed him. They just shot him on the spot." Martha says.

"Daleks. All right, so it's my turn! Then kill me! Kill me if it'll stop you attacking these people!" The doctor shouts at the daleks.

"I will be the destroyer of our greatest enemy." Dalek 3 says.

"Then do it! Do it! Just do it! Do it!"

"Exterminate. I do not understand. It is the Doctor. The urge to kill is too strong. I obey."

"What's going on?"

"You will follow."

"No! You can't go." Martha says.

"I've got to go. The Daleks just changed their minds. Daleks never change their minds." The doctor tells her.

"But what about us?"

"One condition! If I come with you, you spare the lives of everyone here! Do you hear me?"

"Humans will be spared. Doctor, follow." The dalek agrees.

"Then I'm coming with you." Martha tells the doctor.

"Martha, stay here. Do what you do best. People are hurt. You can help them. Let me go. Oh, and can I just say, thank you very much." He tells her.

"What about Izzy?"

"She's-" He's cut off by my glare.

"Don't even think it spaceman. You forget, I already know what's going to happen, I'll be fine." I tell him.

"Fine. Fine! You can come, just stay by me, okay?"

"Okay."

He takes Martha's hand in his, and winks, then leaves with the Daleks. I quickly follow him.

I'm holding the doctor's hand as we walk into the dalek laboratory.

"Those people were defenceless! You only wanted me, but no, that wasn't enough for you. You had to start killing, because that's the only thing a Dalek's good for." The doctor tells them angrily.

"The deaths were wrong." Sec tells him.

"I'm sorry?"

"That man, their leader, Solomon. He showed courage."

"And that's good?"

"That's excellent."

"Is it me or are you just becoming a little bit more human?"

"He is." I tell the doctor as quietly as I can.

"You are the last of your kind, and now I am the first of mine." Sec tells him.

"What do you want me for?" The doctor asks him.

"We tried everything to survive when we found ourselves stranded in this ignorant age. First we tried growing new Dalek embryos, but their flesh was too weak."

"Yeah, I found one of your experiments. Just left to die out there in the dark."

"It forced us to conclude what is the greatest resource of this planet. Its people."

Sec throws a switch and lights up the whole place. Floating above us are hundreds of covered bodies on stretchers. Sec brings one down for inspection. "We stole them. We stole human beings for our purpose. Look inside."

The Doctor uncovers a man's face.

"This is the true extent of the Final Experiment." Sec tells us.

"Is he dead?"

"Near death, with his mind wiped, ready to be filled with new ideas."

"Dalek ideas."

"The Human Dalek race."

"All of these people. How many?"

"We have caverns beyond this storing more than a thousand."

"Is there any way to restore them? Make them human again?"

"Everything they were has been lost."

"So they're like shells. You've got empty human beings ready to be converted. That's going to take a hell of a lot of power. This planet hasn't even split the atom yet. How're you going to do it?"

"Open the conductor plan."


	10. Evolution Of The Daleks Part Two

**Evolution of the Daleks Part Two**

 **A/N: Sorry this is so late but I've been really busy lately, thanks for being so patient. Here's the next chapter.**

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. The Empire State Building. We're right underneath that. I worked that out already, thanks. But what, you've hijacked the whole building?" The doctor asks Sec.

"We needed an energy conductor." Sec tells him.

"What for?"

"I am the genetic template. My altered DNA was to be administered to each human body. A strong enough blast of gamma radiation can splice the Dalek and human genetic codes, and waken each body from its sleep."

"Gamma radiation? What are you. Oh, the sun. You're using the sun."

"Soon the greatest solar flare for a thousand years will hit the Earth. Gamma radiation will be drawn to the energy conductor and when it strikes"

"The army wakes. I still don't know what you need me for."

"Your genius. Consider a pure Dalek, intelligent but emotionless."

"Removing the emotions makes you stronger. That's what your creator thought, all those years ago."

"He was wrong."

"He was what?"

"It makes us lesser than our enemies. We must return to the flesh, and also the heart."

"But you wouldn't be the supreme beings anymore."

"And that is good."

"That is incorrect." One of the daleks says.

"Daleks are supreme." The other Dalek says.

"No, not anymore." Sec tells them.

"But that is our purpose." The second dalek insists.

"Then our purpose is wrong. Where has our quest for supremacy led us? To this. Hiding in the sewers on a primitive world, just four of us left. If we do not change now then we deserve extinction."

"So you want to change everything that makes a Dalek a Dalek." The doctor says.

"If you can help me. Your knowledge of genetic engineering is even greater than ours. The new race must be ready by the time the solar flare erupts."

"But you're the template. I thought they were getting a dose of you."

"I want to change the gene sequence."

"To make them even more human?"

"Humans are the great survivors. We need that ability."

"Hold on a minute. There's no way this lot are going to let you do it."

"I am their leader."

"Oh, and that's enough for you, is it?"

"Daleks must follow orders." The first dalek says.

"Dalek Sec commands, we obey." The other dalek says.

"If you don't help me, nothing will change." Sec says to the doctor.

"There's no room on Earth for another race of people." The doctor tells him.

"You have your Tardis. Take us across the stars. Find us a new home and allow the new Daleks to start again."

"When's that solar flare?"

"Eleven minutes."

"Right then. Better get to work. There's no point in chromosomal grafting, it's too erratic. You need to split the genome and force the Dalek human sequence right into the cortex."

"We need more chromatin solution."

"The pig slaves have it." One of the daleks say.

The pigmen carry in a large crate. Laszlo is with them.

"These pig slaves, what happens to them in the grand plan?" The doctor asks.

"Nothing. They're just simple beasts. Their lifespan is limited. None survive beyond a few weeks. Power up the line feeds." Sec tells him.

The Doctor whispers to Laszlo. "Laszlo, I can't undo what they've done to you, but they won't do it to anyone else."

"Do you trust him?" Lazlo asks the doctor.

"I know that one man can change the course of history. Right idea in the right place at the right time, it's all it takes. I've got to believe it's possible."

"I wouldn't put too much faith in them." I tell the doctor.

"What do you know?"

"I can't tell you."

"The line feeds are ready." One of the daleks says.

"Then it's all systems go." The doctor says.

"The solar flare is imminent. The radiation will reach Earth in a matter of minutes." Sec tells the doctor.

"We'll be ready for it."

The Doctor fills a large syringe with blue liquid and puts it into a brass still. "That compound will allow the gene bonds to reconfigure in a brand new pattern. Power up!" he shouts.

A pigman throws one set of breakers, and Laszlo throws the other.

"Start the line feeds." Sec orders.

The liquid goes up plastic tubes to all the bodies hanging above them. It has got lots of bubbles in it.

"There goes the gene solution." The doctor tells us.

"The life blood."

Something goes off.

"What's that?" The doctor asks.

"What's happening? Is there a malfunction? Answer me!" Sec demands.

"No, no, no. The gene feed! They're overriding the gene feed!"

"Impossible. They cannot disobey orders."

"The Doctor will step away from the controls." One of the daleks says.

"Stop! You will not fire." Sec tells it.

"He is an enemy of the Daleks." The second dalek says.

"And so are you." The first one says.

The Daleks point their guns at Sec.

"I am your commander. I am Dalek Sec." Sec tells them.

"You have lost your authority." The first dalek says.

"You are no longer a Dalek." The other one tells Sec.

"What have you done with the gene feed?" The doctor asks.

"The new bodies will be one hundred percent Dalek." The first dalek says.

"No. You can't do this!" Sec shouts.

"Pig slaves, restrain Dalek Sec, the Doctor and his Izzy." One of the daleks demands.

Laszlo is one of those that grab the Doctor.

"Release me. I created you. I am your master." Sec demands.

Another alarm sounds. The lift is coming down.

"Solar flare approaching." The first dalek says.

"Prepare to intercept." One of the othet daleks says.

"There's the lift." Lazlo tells us.

"After you." The doctor says.

Laszlo, the Doctor and I run. The Doctor uses the sonic screwdriver to get the lift doors open.

"The Doctor and his Izzy is escaping. Stop them! Stop them!" The first dalek demands.

The doors slam shut in the pigmen's faces.

"We've only got minutes before the gamma radiation reaches the Earth. We need to get to the top of the building. Laszlo, what's wrong?" The doctor asks Lazlo.

"Out of breath. It's nothing. We've escaped them, Doctor. That's all that matters." Lazlo tells him.

The lift arrives.

"Doctor!" Martha shouts.

"First floor, perfumery." He says.

"I never thought I'd see you again." Tallulah says to Lazlo.

"No stopping me." He tells her before they hug.

"We've worked it out. We know what they've done. There's Dalekanium on the mast. And it's good to see you too, by the way." Martha tells the doctor.

"Oh, come here." He says.

The Doctor sweeps Martha off her feet. Then the lift doors shut. "No, no, no. See, never waste time with a hug. Deadlock seal. I can't stop it."

"Where's it going?"

"Right down to the Daleks. And they're not going to leave us alone up here. What's the time?"

"Er, eleven fifteen." Frank tells him.

"Six minutes to go. I've got to remove the Dalekanium before the gamma radiation hits."

"Gammon radiation? What the heck is that?" Tallulah asks him.

We all run to the open area and look out.

"Oh, that's high. That's very. Blimey, that's high." The doctor says.

"And we've got to go even higher. That's the mast up there, look. There's three pieces of Dalekanium on the base. We've got to get them off." Martha tells him.

The Doctor and Martha look up the wooden ladder leading to the base of the mast.

"That's not we, that's just me." The doctor tells Martha.

"I won't just stand here and watch you." She insists.

"No, you're going to have your hands full anyway. I'm sorry, Martha, but you've got to fight." He turns to me.

"I am not going up there." I tell him.

"Good. I don't want you fighting either."

"I'm not gonna fight."

Once me and Martha are back in the office, she says "The lift's coming up."

"I should have brought that gun." Frank says.

"Tallulah, stay back. You too, Martha and Izzy. If they send pig slaves, they're trained to kill." Lazlo tells us.

"Isabella." I tell him.

"The Doctor needs me to fight. I'm not going anywhere!" Martha argues.

"They're savages. I should know. They're trained to slit your throat with their bare teeth." Lazlo tells her but he can barely lift his lump hammer and falls.

"Laszlo? What is it?" Tallulah asks him.

"No, it's nothing. I'm fine. Just leave me."

"Oh, honey, you're burning up. What's wrong with you? Tell me."

"Great. One man down, we ain't even started yet." Frank says.

"It's not looking good, Frank." Martha tells him.

"Nope."

"We're going to get slaughtered." Thunder and lightning over the city. "Wait a minute. Lightening."

Frank and Martha get sections of metal scaffolding and use chairs to trail them in from outside.

"Aw, you'll be all right, sweetheart. Don't you worry. What the hell are you two clowns doing?" Tallulah asks Martha and Frank.

"Even if the Doctor stops the Dalekanium, this place is still going to get hit. Great big bolt of lightening, electricity all down this building. Connect this to the lift and they get zapped." Martha tells her.

"Oh my God, that could work."

"Then give us a hand." Frank says.

Martha has set up a line of metal from the lightning conductor to the lift doors.

"Is that going to work?" Tallulah asks her.

"It's got to." Martha tells her.

"I've got it all piped up to the scaffolding outside." Frank says.

"Come here, Frank. Just sit in the middle and don't touch anything metal." Martha tells him.

"Yeah."

It worked. The pigmen are all dead.

"You did it, Martha." Tallulah says.

"They used to be like Laszlo. They were people, and I killed them." Martha says.

"No, the Daleks killed them. Long ago." Lazlo tells her.

"What about the Doctor?"

Martha heads outside and a few minutes later, comes walking back inside with the doctor.

"The Daleks will have gone straight to a war footing. They'll be using the sewers, spreading the soldiers out underneath Manhattan." The doctor says.

"How do we stop them?" Lazlo asks him.

"There's only one chance. I got in the way. That gamma strike went zapping though me first."

"Yeah, but what does that mean?" Martha asks him.

"We need to draw fire. Before they can attack New York, I need to face them. Where can I draw them out? Think, think, think, think, think. We need some sort of space. Somewhere safe. Somewhere out of the way. Tallulah!"

"That's me. Three Ls and an H." she says.

"The theatre! It's right above them, and, what, it's gone midnight? Can you get us inside?"

"Don't see why not."

"Is there another lift?"

"We came up in the service elevator." Martha tells him.

"That'll do. Allons-y!"

It doesn't take long to get inside the theatre.

"This should do it. Here we go." The doctor says.

"There ain't nothing more creepy than a theatre in the dark. Listen, Doctor, I know you got a thing for show tunes, but there's a time and place, huh?" Tallulah says.

Laszlo sits down.

"Laszlo, what's wrong?" Tallulah asks him.

"Nothing. It's just so hot." he tells her.

"But it's freezing in here. Doctor, what's happening to him?"

"Not now, Tallulah. Sorry." the doctor tells her.

"What are you doing?" Martha asks him.

"If the Daleks are going to war, they'll want to find their number one enemy. I'm just telling them where I am."

He holds his sonic screwdriver in the air, beeping.

"I'm telling you to go. Frank can take you back to Hooverville." The doctor tells Martha.

"And I'm telling you I'm not going." She argues back.

"Martha, that's an order."

"Who are you, then? Some sort of Dalek?"

The doors are broken down and the people march in from both sides.

"Doctor! Oh, my God! Well, I guess that's them then, huh?" Tallulah asks.

"Humans, with Dalek DNA?" Martha asks.

"It's all right, it's all right. Just stay calm. Don't antagonize them." The doctor tells us.

"But what of the Dalek masters? Where are they?" Lazlo asks him.

There is an explosion on stage. The two Daleks appear, with Sec on a chain and crawling on his hands and knees, like a dog.

"The Doctor will stand before the Daleks." One of the daleks says.

The Doctor walks forward over the top of the seats.

"You will die, Doctor. It is the beginning of a new age." The dalek says.

"Planet Earth will become New Skaro." The other dalek says.

"Oh, and what a world. With anything just the slightest bit different ground into the dirt. That's Dalek Sec. Don't you remember? The cleverest Dalek ever and look what you've done to him. Is that your new Empire, hmm? Is that the foundation for a whole new civilization?" The doctor asks.

"My Daleks, just understand this. If you choose death and destruction, then death and destruction will choose you." Sec tells the daleks.

"Incorrect. We will always survive." The first Dalek says.

"Now we will destroy our greatest enemy, the Doctor." The second one says.

"But he can help you." Sec tells them.

"The Doctor must die." The first dalek says.

"No, I beg you, don't."

"Exterminate!"

Sec stands in front of the Dalek just as it fire and he dies.

"Your own leader. The only creature who might have led you out of the darkness and you destroyed him. Do you see what they did? Huh? You see what a Dalek really is?" The doctor asks. "If I'm going to die, let's give the new boys a shot. What do you think, eh? The Dalek humans. Their first blood. Go on, baptise them."

"Dalek humans, take aim." The first dalek says

They all aim their guns at the doctor.

"What are you waiting for? Give the command!" The doctor shouts.

"Exterminate!"

The Doctor tenses, but nothing happens.

"Exterminate!" The second dalek says.

"Obey. Dalek humans will obey." The first one demands.

"They're not firing. What have you done?" Martha asks the doctor.

"You will obey. Exterminate." The first dalek says.

"Why?" One of the human/Timelords asks.

"Daleks do not question orders." The second dalek says.

"But why?"

"You will stop this."

"But why?"

"You must not question."

"But you are not our master. And we, we are not Daleks."

"No, you're not. And you never will be. Sorry, I got in the way of the lightning strike. Time Lord DNA got all mixed up. Just that little bit of freedom." The doctor tells the daleks.

"If they will not obey, then they must die." The first dalek says.

The Dalek shoots the man.

"Get down!" The doctor shouts.

Everyone drops below the seats as the Daleks and their mutated humans fire at each other.

"Exterminate! Exterminate!" The daleks shout. "Exterminate!"

A Dalek is destroyed.

"Extermin" The only dalek left begins to say.

It gets its head blown up. We all stand up.

"It's all right, it's all right, it's all right. You did it. You're free." The doctor tells the human hybrids.

The hybrids clutch their heads then die.

"No! They can't! They can't! They can't! They can't!" The doctor shouts.

"What happened? What was that?" Martha asks him.

"They killed them, rather than let them live. An entire species. Genocide."

"Only two of the Daleks have been destroyed. One of the Dalek masters must still be alive." Lazlo tells us.

"Oh, yes. In the whole universe, just one."

"Now what?" The doctor asks the dalek once we're back in their laboratory.

"You will be exterminated." It says.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Just think about it, Dalek what was your name?"

"Dalek Caan."

"Dalek Caan. Your entire species has been wiped out. And now the Cult of Skaro has been eradicated, leaving only you. Right now you're facing the only man in the universe who might show you some compassion. Because I've just seen one genocide. I won't cause another. Caan, let me help you. What do you say?"

"Emergency temporal shift!"

The cables fall off and the Dalek disappears.

"Doctor! Doctor! He's sick." Martha shouts.

Tallulah and Martha help the wheezing Laszlo.

"It's okay. You're all right. It's his heart. It's racing like mad. I've never seen anything like it." Martha tells him.

"What is it, Doctor? What's the matter with him? He says he can't breathe? What is it?" Tallulah asks.

"It's time, sweetheart." Lazlo tells her.

"What do you mean, time? What are you talking about?"

"None of the slaves survive for long. Most of them only live for a few weeks. I was lucky. I held on because I had you. But now, I'm dying, Tallulah."

"No, you're not. Not now, after all this. Doctor, can't you do something?"

"Oh, Tallulah with three Ls and an H, just you watch me. What do I need? Oh, I don't know. How about a great big genetic laboratory? Oh look, I've got one. Laszlo, just you hold on. There's been too many deaths today." The doctor says before he starts working with coloured liquids. "Way too many people have died. Brand new creatures and wise old men and age old enemies. And I'm telling you, I'm telling you right now, I am not having one more death! You got that? Not one. Tallulah, out of the way. The Doctor is in."

The doctor saves him, later on, we're in central park.

"Well, I talked to them, and I told them what Solomon would've said, and I reckon I shamed one or two of them." Frank tells us.

"What did they say?" The doctor asks him.

"They said yes. They'll give you a home, Laszlo. I mean, er, don't imagine people ain't going to stare. I can't promise you'll be at peace but, in the end, that is what Hooverville is for. People who ain't got nowhere else."

"Thank you. I can't thank you enough." Lazlo tells him.

Outside the Tardis, Martha turns to the doctor. "Do you reckon it's going to work, those two?"

"I don't know. Anywhere else in the universe, I might worry about them, but New York? That's what this city's good at. Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses, and maybe the odd pig slave Dalek mutant hybrid too." The doctor tells her.

"The pig and the showgirl."

"The pig and the showgirl."

"It just proves it, I suppose. There's someone for everyone."

"Maybe."

"Meant to say, I'm sorry."

"What for?"

"Just because that Dalek got away. I know what that means to you. Think you'll ever see it again?"

"Oh, yes. One day."


	11. Conversations

**Conversations**

Martha walks off further in the tardis, after a moment, she disappears. I look over at the doctor as he looks at his scanner with his glasses on.

"Doctor?" I call out.

"Hmm?" he asks before looking up at me, once he sees the look on my face, he immediately stops what he's doing and starts walking over to me. "Hey, what's wrong?" he asks me.

My eyes fill up with tears, "I want to go home." I tell him.

"Izzy, it's not that simple."

"No! I don't want to do this anymore, okay? I thought it would be fun, I'd always watched you on telly and you always made it seem so amazing but it's not. It's horrible, I don't want to have to face the daleks but I will. If I keep coming here, then I'll have to. I just want to go home."

"I'm sorry Izzy, but I can't get you home, you have to wait until you're taken back. Have I explained everything yet?"

"Not really."

"Okay, why don't we both sit down?" He points me over to a futon and I take a seat next to him.

"Ok, explain."

"She's hurting you, isn't she?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Your mum. She's hurting you, she's just started doing it, ever since she started drinking, she's been slowly getting worse, day by day."

"How do you know that?"

"Because you told me. A while back, but you also haven't told me yet."

"I'm going to tell you that?"

"Yeah. You tell me everything."

"I must really trust you."

"I like to think so."

"You still haven't explained yet."

"Right, well, the truth is I have no idea. I don't know why you come to the Tardis, I don't know how you survive the trip here because you shouldn't be able to, it should kill you."

"So, what do you know?"

"I know that I've known you a long time now. You're my best friend. You have been there for me when I needed it, even when I treated you horribly."

"What's the oldest you've seen me?"

"Thirty."

"Gross. I get old."

The doctor starts laughing and I can't help but smile.

Sharp pain wracks my body and I have to wrap my arms around my stomach.

"You're going."

"I think so."

"I know you're scared but you need to be brave, one day, you won't have to worry about your mum."

"I wish I could believe that."

"I know it's hard to believe, you just need to have faith and a lot of patience."

"I don't know if I can do that."

"Trust me. You can. You're so special Izzy. You just need to believe in yourself a bit more."

I can't help but smile at him. "Goodbye doctor." I tell him before there's a bright flash of white and when my eyes focus again, I'm back in my bedroom.


	12. The time of angels part one

**The Time Of Angels** **Part One**

 _Two years later..._

I sit on my bed, blasting music through my headphones, so I don't have to face the reality of my situation. I stare out of my bedroom window, wishing I could be anywhere but here.

I haven't seen the doctor for two years, the only thing keeping me going is the fact that he told me that I'd see him again. Unfortunately, because I'm not paying attention, I don't notice Mark come into my bedroom. When I feel the mattress fall due to his added weight, I turn to look at him and yank out my ear phones.

I can't help but tense up. "Hey Izzy." he says.

"Don't call me that!" I snap at him. I don't want anyone but the doctor calling me that.

He ignores me and puts his hand on my leg. He has a smile on his face, I just want to wipe it off. It's then that my whole body is wracked with pain and I can't help but smile.

"What you smiling about?" Mark asks me. I don't get a chance to answer because I'm transported to the doctor.

"Are you basically running away?" I hear Amy ask and I can't help but smile. That means I'm with eleven.

"Yep." he tells her.

"Why?"

"Because she's the future. Mine and Izzy's future."

"Can you run away from that?"

"I can run away from anything I like. Time is not the boss of me."

"No, you can't." I tell him and they both turn towards me.

"Izzy!" The doctor shouts before coming over to me and wrapping his arms around me. He squeezes me tight for a few seconds before letting me go.

"You lied to me doctor. You told me that if I had patience then my life would get better." I tell him.

"Izzy, I am so sorry, but I didn't lie to you. Things will get better eventually, I promise. How old are you?"

"Thirteen."

"Soon. I promise."

"Hang on, is that a planet out there?" Amy pipes up.

"Yes, of course it's a planet."

"You promised me a planet. Five minutes?"

"Okay, five minutes."

"Yes!"

"But that's all, because I'm telling you now, that woman is not dragging me into anything."

I follow the doctor outside.

"What caused it to crash?" Amy asks.

"Not me." River says.

"Nah, the airlock would've sealed seconds after you blew it. According to the Home Box, the warp engines had a phase shift. No survivors." The doctor tells her. This seems familiar, what happened during this episode.

"A phase shift would have to be sabotage. I did warn them."

"About what?"

"Well, at least the building was empty. Aplan temple. Unoccupied for centuries."

"Aren't you going to introduce us?" Amy asks the doctor.

"Amy Pond, Professor River Song." The doctor says.

"Ah, I'm going to be a Professor some day, am I? How exciting. Spoilers." River laughs.

"Yeah, but who is she and how did she do that? She just left you a note in a museum." Amy says.

"Two things always guaranteed to show up in a museum. The Home Box of category four starliner and sooner or later, him. It's how he keeps score."

"I know."

"It's hilarious, isn't it?"

"I'm nobody's taxi service. I'm not going to be there to catch you every time you feel like jumping out of a space ship." The doctor says angrily.

"And you are so wrong. There's one survivor. There's a thing in the belly of that ship that can't ever die. Now he's listening." I freeze. I've heard those words before. In the time of the angels. No. No way.

The doctor looks down at me in concern. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah. I just remembered what happens."

"How bad?"

"On a scale of one to ten?"

"Yeah."

"Eight."

The doctor closes his eyes in dread. River uses her communicator. "You lot in orbit yet? Yeah, I saw it land. I'm at the crash site. Try and home in on my signal. Doctor, can you sonic me? I need to boost the signal so we can use it as a beacon."

He does as she says, although reluctantly.

"Ooo, Doctor, you sonicked her." Amy teases him.

"We have a minute. Shall we?" River asks. She gets out her Tardis blue diary. "Where are we up to? Have we done the Bone Meadows?"

"What's the book?" Amy asks.

"Stay away from it." The doctor tells her.

"What is it though?"

"Her diary."

"Our diary." River interrupts.

"Her past, our future. Time travel. We keep meeting in the wrong order."

"Wait, our?" I ask, confused.

"Yeah, why are you confused?"

"It's meant to be your future."

"Things are different with you here."

"Oh."

Four small tornadoes kick up the dust and turn into four soldiers.

"You promised me an army, Doctor Song." The man who I think is called Octavian says.

"No, I promised you the equivalent of an army. This is the Doctor and Izzy." River tells him.

"Father Octavian, Sir, ma'am. Bishop, second class. Twenty clerics at my command. The troops are already in the drop ship and landing shortly. Doctor Song was helping us with a covert investigation. Has Doctor Song explained what we're dealing with?" Octavian asks us.

"Doctor, Izzy, what do you know of the Weeping Angels?" River asks the both of us.

"The Angel, as far as we know, is still trapped in the ship. Our mission is to get inside and neutralise it. We can't get through up top, we'd be too close to the drives. According to this, behind the cliff face there's a network of catacombs leading right up to the temple. We can blow through the base of the cliffs, get into the entrance chamber, then make our way up." Octavian tells us as we walk onto the camp.

"Oh, good." The doctor says.

"Good, sir?"

"Catacombs. Probably dark ones. Dark catacombs. Great."

"Technically, I think it's called a maze of the dead."

"You can stop any time you like."

"Father Octavian?" One of the soldiers calla Octavian.

"Excuse me, sir." Octavian says before he leaves.

"You're letting people call you sir. You never do that. So, whatever a Weeping Angel is, it's really bad, yeah?" Amy asks the doctor.

"Yeah, they're deadly." I tell her.

"Now that's interesting. You're still here. Which part of wait in the Tardis till I tell you it's safe was so confusing?" The doctor asks her.

"Ooo, are you all Mister Grumpy Face today?" Amy asks him.

"A Weeping Angel, Amy, is the deadliest, most powerful, most malevolent life form evolution has ever produced, and right now one of them is trapped inside that wreckage and I'm supposed to climb in after it with a screwdriver and a torch, and assuming I survive the radiation long enough and assuming the whole ship doesn't explode in my face, do something incredibly clever which I haven't actually thought of yet. That's my day. That's what I'm up to. Any questions?"

"Is River Song your wife? Because she's someone from your future, and the way she talks to you, I've never seen anyone do that. She's kind of like, you know, heel, boy. She's Mrs Doctor from the future, isn't she? Is she going to be your wife one day?"

"Yes, you're right. I am definitely Mister Grumpy Face today." I can't help but smile at that.

River pokes her head out of the drop ship, she's changed into a camouflage style outfit. "Doctor! Doctor?"

"Oops. Her indoors." Amy says.

"Izzy? Father Octavian."

"Why do they call him Father?"

"He's their Bishop, they're his Clerics. It's the fifty first Century. The Church has moved on." The doctor tells her. I follow them into the drop ship.

A grainy image of a Weeping Angel with its back towards us is on a monitor on the far wall.

"What do you think? It's from the security cameras in the Byzantium vault. I ripped it when I was on board. Sorry about the quality. It's four seconds. I've put it on loop." River tells us all.

"Yeah, it's an Angel. Hands covering its face." The doctor says.

"You've encountered the Angels before?" Octavian asks the doctor.

"Once, on Earth, a long time ago. But those were scavengers, barely surviving."

"But it's just a statue." Amy insists.

"It's a statue when you see it." River tells her. I can't help but shiver as I stare at the video.

"Where did it come from?" The doctor asks.

"Oh, pulled from the ruins of Razbahan, end of last century. It's been in private hands ever since. Dormant all that time."

"There's a difference between dormant and patient."

"What's that mean, it's a statue when you see it?" Amy asks.

"The Weeping Angels can only move if they're unseen. So legend has it." River tells her.

"It's not a legend." I tell the both of them.

"It's a quantum lock. In the sight of any living creature the Angels literally cease to exist. They're just stone. The ultimate defence mechanism." The doctor tells them.

"What, being a stone?" Amy asks.

"Being a stone until you turn your back."

We headback outside to the camp. "The hyperdrive would've split on impact. That whole ship's going to be flooded with drive burn radiation, cracked electrons, gravity storms. Deadly to almost any living thing." The doctor tells us.

"Deadly to an Angel?" Octavian asks.

"Of course not." I tell him.

"Izzy's right. It's dinner to an Angel. The longer we leave it there, the stronger it will grow. Who built that temple? Are they still around?" The doctor asks.

"The Aplans. Indigenous life form. They died out four hundred years ago, though I don't need to tell Izzy that." River tells him.

"Two hundred years later, the planet was terraformed. Currently there are six billion human colonists." Octavian adds.

"Whoo! You lot, you're everywhere. You're like rabbits. I'll never get done saving you." The doctor says, I shake my head at him.

"Rabbits?" I ask him. He just looks at me and smiles.

"Sir, if there is a clear and present danger to the local population" The doctor cuts Octavian off.

"Oh, there is. Bad as it gets. Bishop, lock and load."

"Verger, how are we doing with those explosives? Doctor Song, with me."

"Two minutes. Sweetie, honey, I need you." River says, my face scrunches up in confusion.

"Sweetie?" The doctor asks.

"Come on." I tell him. She must be calling me honey because that wasn't in the original episode.

"Anybody need me? Nobody?" Amy asks.

Amy goes back into the drop ship.

"I found this. Definitive work on the Angels. Well, the only one. Written by a madman. It's barely readable, but I've marked a few passages." River tells us.

The Doctor riffles through the pages of the book. "Not bad. Bit slow in the middle. Didn't you hate his girlfriend? No. No, hang on. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait." He sniffs the book.

"Doctor Song? Did you have more than one clip of the Angel?" Amy pokes her head out of the drop ship and shouts out.

"No, just the four seconds." River tells her. I can't look at Amy, I know what's going to happen to her and I feel horrible.

"This book is wrong. What's wrong with this book? It's wrong." The doctor says.

'It's so strange when you go all baby face. How early is this for you?"

"Very early."

"So you don't know who I am yet?"

"How do you know who I am? I don't always look the same."

"I've got pictures of all your faces. You never show up in the right order, though. I need the spotter's guide."

"Pictures. Why aren't there pictures? This whole book, it's a warning about the Weeping Angels, so why no pictures? Why not show us what to look out for?"

"There was a bit about images. What was that?"

"Yes. Hang on. That which holds the image of an angel becomes itself an angel."

"What does that mean? An image of a Angel becomes itself an Angel."

"Doctor! It's in the room." Amy shouts through the door.

"Amy!" He shouts before running over to the ship.

"Doctor!"

"Are you all right? What's happening?"

"Doctor? Doctor, it's coming out of the television. The Angel is here."

The Doctor sonicks the keypad lock. "Don't take your eyes off it. Keep looking. It can't move if you're looking."

"What's wrong?" River asks him.

"Deadlocked."

"There is no deadlock."

"Don't blink, Amy. Don't even blink."

"Doctor." Amy pleads and I can't help but feel guilty, I should have done something.

"What are you doing?" River asks the doctor.

"Cutting the power. It's using the screen, I'm turning the screen off. No good, it's deadlocked the whole system." He tells her.

"There's no deadlock."

"There is now."

"Help me!" Amy begs.

"Can you turn it off?" The doctor asks her.

"Doctor."

"The screen. Can you turn it off?"

"I tried."

"Try again but don't take your eyes off the Angel."

"I'm not."

"Each time it moves, it'll move faster. Don't even blink."

River is trying to cut through the door with her pistol torch.

"I'm not blinking. Have you ever tried not blinking?" Amy asks. "It just keeps switching back on."

"Yeah, it's the Angel."

"But it's just a recording."

"No, anything that takes the image of an Angel is an Angel. What are you doing?"

"I'm trying to cut through. It's not even warm." River tells him.

"You won't be able to get through." I tell her.

"She's right. There is no way in. It's not physically possible." The doctor tells her.

"Doctor, what's it going to do to me?" Amy asks, obviously scared.

"Just keep looking at it. Don't stop looking."

"Just tell me."

The Doctor runs and gets the book.

"Tell me. Tell me!" Amy shouts.

"Amy, not the eyes. Look at the Angel but don't look at the eyes." The doctor tells her.

"Why?"

"What is it?" River asks him.

"The eyes are not the windows of the soul. They are the doors. Beware what may enter there." He tells her.

"Doctor, what did you say?" Amy asks him.

"Don't look at the eyes!"

"No, about images. What did you say about images?"

"Whatever holds the image of an Angel, is an Angel." River tells her.

The Doctor and River burst in as the monitor turns off, I walk in after them.

"I froze it. There was a sort of blip on the tape and I froze it on the blip. It wasn't the image of an Angel any more. That was good, yeah? It was, wasn't it? That was pretty good."

"That was amazing."

"River, hug Amy." The doctor tells River

"Why?" Amy asks.

"Because I'm busy."

"I'm fine."

"You're brilliant." River tells her.

"Thanks. Yeah, I kind of creamed it, didn't I?"

"So it was here? That was the Angel?"

"That was a projection of the Angel. It's reaching out, getting a good look at us. It's no longer dormant." The doctor tells us before walking over to me. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because I didn't think I could change it and if I can't change it then what would be the point?" I ask him.

"Yeah, you're right."


	13. The time of the angels part two

**The Time Of The Angels Part Two**

"Okay, now it starts." The doctor says before he walks out of the drop ship.

"Coming?" River asks Amy as I follow after the doctor.

"Yeah, coming. There's just something in my eye." Amy tells her.

Everyone climbs down a rope ladder into a very large underground space.

"Do we have a gravity globe?" The doctor asks.

"Grav globe." Octavian commands and a cleric gives him a globe.

"Where are we? What is this?" Amy asks.

"It's an Aplan Mortarium, sometimes called a Maze of the Dead." River explains.

"What's that?"

"Well, if you happen to be a creature of living stone" The doctor starts. He kicks the globe into the air, where it illuminates a vast array of mausoleums and statuary. "The perfect hiding place."

"I guess this makes it a bit trickier." Octavian says.

"A bit, yeah."

"A stone Angel on the loose amongst stone statues. A lot harder than I'd prayed for."

"A needle in a haystack." River says.

"A needle that looks like hay. A hay-like needle of death. A hay-alike needle of death in a haystack of, er, statues. No, yours was fine." The doctor rambles.

"Right. Check every single statue in this chamber. You know what you're looking for. Complete visual inspection. One question. How do we fight it?" Octavian asks the doctor.

"We find it, and hope."

The Doctor and Amy start up the terraces and I follow after them.

"You all right?" River asks Amy.

"Yeah, I'm fine. So, what's a Maze of the Dead?" Amy asks in return.

"Oh, it's not as bad as it sounds. It's just a labyrinth with dead people buried in the walls. Okay, that was fairly bad. Right give me your arm. This won't hurt a bit." River injects Amy.

"Ow!" Amy complains.

"There, you see. I lied. It's a viro-stabiliser. Stabilises your metabolism against radiation, drive burn, anything. You're going to need it when we get up to that ship."

"So what's he like? In the future, I mean. Because you know him in the future, don't you?"

"The Doctor? Well, the Doctor's the Doctor."

"Oh. Well, that's very helpful. Mind if I write that down?"

"Yes, we are."

"Sorry, what?" The doctor asks her.

"Talking about you."

"I wasn't listening. I'm busy."

"Liar." I can't help but blurt that out. He mock glares at me.

"Ah. The other way up." River tells him. He turns River's portable computer around.

"Yeah." He murmurs.

"You're so his wife." Amy tells River. I can't help the jealousy I feel at that statement.

"Oh, Amy, Amy, Amy. This is the Doctor we're talking about. Do you really think it could be anything that simple?" She asks.

'Yep."

"You're good. I'm not saying you're right, but you are very good."

A gunshot goes off, we all run back to the main group. The cleric who I think is called Bob has shot at a statue. "Sorry, sorry. I thought. I thought it looked at me." He apologizes.

"We know what the Angel looks like. Is that the Angel?" Octavian asks him.

"No, sir."

"No, sir, it is not. According to the Doctor, we are facing an enemy of unknowable power and infinite evil, so it would be good, it would be very good, if we could all remain calm in the presence of decor." I glare at Octavian. I mean come on, he made a mistake, it happens. The doctor notices my glare.

"What's your name?" He asks Bob.

"Bob, sir." He tells the doctor.

"Ah, that's a great name. I love Bob."

"It's a Sacred Name. We all have Sacred Names. They're given to us in the service of the Church." Octavian tells him.

"Sacred Bob. More like Scared Bob now, eh?" The doctor asks Bob.

"Yes, sir." Bob answers.

"Ah, good. Scared keeps you fast. Anyone in this room who isn't scared is a moron. Carry on." Octavian gives the doctor a strange look.

"We'll be moving into the maze in two minutes. You stay with Christian and Angelo. Guard the approach." Octavian tells his men.

As we head back into the maze of the dead, Amy asks, "Isn't there a chance this lot's just going to collapse? There's a whole ship up there."

"Incredible builders, the Aplans." River tells her.

"Me and Izzy had dinner with their Chief Architect once. Two heads are better than one." The doctor tells her and I look at him in surprise.

"Spoilers." I tell him.

"I really hate that word."

"I know."

"What, you mean you helped him?" Amy asks.

"No, I mean he had two heads. That book, the very end, what did it say?" The doctor asks River.

"Hang on." She tells him.

"Read it to me."

"What if we had ideas that could think for themselves? What if one day our dreams no longer needed us? When these things occur and are held to be true, the time will be upon us. The time of Angels."

"Are we there yet? It's a hell of a climb." Amy asks the doctor.

"The Maze is on six levels, representing the ascent of the soul. Only two levels to go."

"Lovely species, the Aplans. We should visit them some time." The doctor says to me.

"Yeah maybe." I tell him, I can't help but notice the angels around us, I have to suppress the fear running through me.

"I thought they were all dead?" Amy asks him.

"So is Virginia Woolf. I'm on her bowling team. Very relaxed, sort of cheerful. Well, that's having two heads, of course. You're never short of a snog with an extra head." The doctor tells her.

"Doctor, there's something. I don't know what it is." River pipes up.

"Yeah, there's something wrong. Don't know what it is yet, either. Working on it. Of course, then they started having laws against self-marrying. I mean, what was that about? But that's the Church for you. Er, no offence, Bishop."

"Quite a lot taken, if that's all right, Doctor. Lowest point in the wreckage is only about fifty feet up from here. That way." Octavian tells him.

"Doctor, the aplans had two heads." I tell him, he looks at me in confusion for a moment before it starts to dawn on him.

"The Church had a point, if you think about it. The divorces must have been messy." Amy says.

"Oh." The doctor realizes what I'd been trying to tell him.

"What's wrong?"

"Oh." River says sounding worried.

"Exactly." The doctor says to her.

"How could we have not noticed that?"

"Low level perception filter, or maybe we're thick."

"What's wrong, sir?" Octavian asks the doctor.

"Nobody move. Nobody move. Everyone stay exactly where they are. Bishop, I am truly sorry. I've made a mistake and we are all in terrible danger."

"What danger?"

"The Aplans." River tells him.

"The Aplans?"

"They've got two heads."

"Yes, I get that. So?"

"So why don't the statues? Everyone, over there. Just move. Don't ask questions, don't speak." He orders everyone, I immediately do as he says. "Okay, I want you all to switch off your torches."

"Sir?" One of the clerics question.

"Just do it." Everyone does as he says. "Okay. I'm going to turn off this one too, just for a moment."

"Are you sure about this?" River asks him.

"No." I grab hold of his sleeve in fear. The light goes out then back on in an instant.

"Oh, my God. They've moved." Amy says, she's obviously scared.

I follow the Doctor as he runs down the passage, and it is filled with statues coming towards us.

"They're Angels. All of them." The doctor says.

"But they can't be." River insists.

"Clerics, keep watching them." He runs back to a vantage point of the main cavern. All the statues are climbing up towards us. "Every statue in this Maze, every single one, is a Weeping Angel. They're coming after us."

"But there was only one Angel on the ship. Just the one, I swear."

"Could they have been here already?" Amy asks her.

"The Aplans. What happened? How did they die out?"The doctor asks River.

"Nobody knows." River tells him.

"We know."

"They don't look like Angels." Octavian says.

"And they're not fast. You said they were fast. They should have had us by now." Amy tells the doctor.

"Look at them. They're dying, losing their form. They must have been down here for centuries, starving." He tells her.

"Losing their image?"

"And their image is their power. Power. Power!"

"Doctor?"

"Don't you see? All that radiation spilling out the drive burn. The crash of the Byzantium wasn't an accident, it was a rescue mission for the Angels. We're in the middle of an army, and it's waking up."

"We need to get out of here fast." River tells us all.

"Bob, Angelo, Christian, come in, please. Any of you, come in." Octavian speaks into his communicator.

"It's Bob, sir. Sorry, sir." Bob's voice comes over the communicator. I close my eyes in dread, he's already dead.

"Bob, are Angelo and Christian with you? All the statues are active. I repeat, all the statues are active."

"I know, sir. Angelo and Christian are dead, sir. The statues killed them, sir."

The Doctor grabs Octavian's walkie-talkie. "Bob, Sacred Bob, it's me, the Doctor."

"I'm talking to" Octavian tries to say but the doctor isn't listening.

"Where are you now?" The doctor asks angel bob.

"I'm talking to my" Octavian tries again.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, shut up." The doctor tells him.

"I'm on my way up to you, sir. I'm homing in on your signal." Angel bob tells the doctor, my eyes fill up with tears, I feel so guilty, I should have done something.

"Ah, well done, Bob. Scared keeps you fast. Told you, didn't I. Your friends, Bob. What did the Angel do to them?"

"Snapped their necks, sir."

"That's odd. That's not how the Angels kill you. They displace you in time. Unless they needed the bodies for something." Tears start trailing down my face, I try to hold the sobs back.

"Bob, did you check their data packs for vital signs? We may be able to initiate a rescue plan." Octavian tells angel bob.

"Oh, don't be an idiot. The Angels don't leave you alive. Bob, keep running. But tell me, how did you escape?"

"I didn't escape, sir. The Angel killed me, too." Angel bob tells him and I can no longer hold the sobs back. River comes over to me and wraps her arms around me.

"What do you mean, the Angel killed you?" The doctor asks as he stares at me in sorrow.

"Snapped my neck, sir. Wasn't as painless as I expected, but it was pretty quick, so that was something."

"If you're dead, how can I be talking to you?"

"You're not talking to me, sir. The Angel has no voice. It stripped my cerebral cortex from my body and re-animated a version of my consciousness to communicate with you. Sorry about the confusion."

"So when you say you're on your way up to us"

"It's the Angel that's coming, sir, yes. No way out."

"I'm sorry, I'm so so sorry." I get out in between my sobs.

"No Izzy listen to me. This is not your fault." The doctor tells me.

"But I knew this would happen and I didn't do anything, I should have done something, I could have stopped it."

"You knew? You knee and you didn't do anything? Those are my men!!" Octavian shouts at me and I start to sob harder.

The doctor turns to Octavian. "Don't you dare blame her, she's a child. She is not to blame for this, you wanna blame anyone, then you blame me." I don't think I've ever heard the doctor so angry.

"This isn't your fault darling. You couldn't have done anything to save him, you can't save everyone." River tells me, I nod my head and I start to calm down.

Octavian changes the subject. "Then we get out through the wreckage. Go! Go, go, go. All of you run."

"Doctor." Amy says.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm coming. Just go. Go, go, go. Yeah. Called you an idiot. Sorry, but there's no way we could have rescued your men." The doctor tells Octavian.

"I know that, sir. And when you've flown away in your little blue box, I'll explain that to their families." Octavian tells him.

"Angel Bob. Which Angel am I talking to? The one from the ship?"

"Yes, sir. And the other Angels are still restoring." Angel bob tells him.

"Ah, so the Angel is not in the wreckage. Thank you." He turns to me. "This wasn't your fault Izzy, don't for one moment think it is." I nod my head.

The Doctor runs past Amy but I stop next to her.

"Don't wait for me. Go, run." The doctor tells her.

"I can't. No, really, I can't." She tells him.

"Why not?"

"Look at it. Look at my hand. It's stone."

The familiar pain starts up again. "Doctor, I'm going." I tell him.

He comes over to me. "I'll see you soon. Be brave."

"I'll try, good bye doctor." I tell him seconds before that bright light fills up the room and I'm transported back to my bedroom.


	14. A Good Man Goes To War

**A Good Man Goes To War**

 _Six months later..._

I'm not sure where I've landed, not until I see the soldiers, I start to back away in fear. "Grab her!" Someone orders. I turn to run but someone grabs hold of my arms. I get turnt around to see Madame Kovarian walking towards me.

"Miss Stone. Isn't this a pleasant surprise? Put her in the research laboratory." She orders.

"No! No!! Let me go! Doctor!" I scream in terror.

"The doctor isn't going to save you, he doesn't even know you're here." She smugly says.

 _Two months later..._

I'm sat tied up in the corner of Amy's room, my body hurts so much, I just want to go home.

"I wish I could tell you that you'll be loved, that you'll be safe and cared for and protected. But this isn't a time for lies. What you are going to be, Melody is very, very brave." Amy tells little Melody.

Madame Kovarian steps forward from the line of armed guards. "Two minutes." She warns Amy, I can't help but look at the woman in nothing but hatred.

"But not as brave as they'll have to be. Because there's someone coming. I don't know where he is, or what he's doing, but trust me, he's on his way. There's a man who's never going to let us down, and not even an army can get in the way."

Melody is in a high-tec Moses basket.

"He's the last of his kind. He looks young, but he's lived for hundreds and hundreds of years. And wherever they take you, Melody, however scared you are, I promise you, you will never be alone. Because this man is your father." Amy tells Melody.

Madame Kovarian goes to take the baby.

"Leave her. Just you leave her. Please leave her! Please, leave her!" Amy begs.

"He has a name, but the people of our world know him better as the Last Centurion." She tells Melody as she lays in her cot.

Amy is watching the rally from her window. Lorna enters.

"Sorry. I shouldn't be here. I'm meant to be at the thing. I brought you something. Your child's name in the language of my people. It's a prayer leaf and we believe, if you keep this with you, your child will always come home to you." Lorna tells Amy.

"Can I borrow your gun?" Amy asks her.

"Why?"

"Because I've got a feeling you're going to keep talking." Amy turns back to the window. "They're talking like he's famous. The Doctor isn't famous."

"He meets a lot of people. Some of them remember. He's sort of like a, I don't know, a dark legend."

"Dark? Have you met him?"

"Yeah. But I was just a little girl."

"So was I."

"You've been with him a long time, then."

"No. He came back for me."

"You must be very special."

"Hey. You can wait a long time for the Doctor, but he's worth it, okay? The thing is, he's coming. No question about it. Just you make sure you're on the right side when he gets here. Not for my sake, for yours." Amy takes the prayer leaf. "Thank you."

Before Lorna leaves, she turns to me, "I'm so sorry this has happened to you."

"It's not your fault."

Later on, someone starts hammering at the door. Amy rummages in a drawer and finds what might be an electric toothbrush. "Who's that? Who's there? You watch it, because I'm armed and really dangerous, and cross."

"Yeah, like I don't know that." Rory's voice comes through the door.

"Rory? Rory, is that you?"

"Yeah, it's me. Look, hang on a minute."

It sounds like Rory is trying to sonic his way in.

"They took her. Rory, they took our baby away."

The door opens. Rory is carrying Melody. I can't look at him, not when I know it's not really her.

"Now, Mrs Williams, that is never, ever going to happen."

"Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Where's she been? What have they done to her?"

"She's fine. Amy, she's fine. I checked. She's beautiful. Oh God, I was going to be cool. I wanted to be cool. Look at me." Rory starts crying.

"You're okay. Crying Roman with a baby. Definitely cool. Come here, you."

"Urgh. Kissing and crying. I'll, I'll be back in a bit." I hear the doctor say.

"Oi, you. Get in here, now. My daughter. What do you think?" Rory asks him.

"Hello. Hello, baby." The doctor says to Melody.

"Melody." Amy tells him.

"Melody? Hello, Melody Pond." The doctor doesn't even notice me.

"Melody Williams." Rory argues.

"Is a geography teacher. Melody Pond is a superhero." Amy tells him.

"Well yes, I suppose she does smell nice. Never really sniffed her. Maybe I should give it a go. Amelia Pond, come here." The doctor says to Amy.

"Doctor."

"I'm sorry we were so long."

"It's okay. I knew you were coming. Both of you. My boys. We both did."

"Both?"

She nods her head towards me with a small smile on her face. He turns to me. "Doctor." I say with a half smile.

He turns really angry and I can't help but feel confused. "You! How could you?! This is all happening because of you! You are dead to me. You're nothing to me." He tells me, I've never seen him so angry. I can't help but burst into tears. He turns away from me in disgust and it makes me sob harder.

"Doctor!" Amy shouts.

"No Amy. She should have done something but she chose not to and I can't forgive that."

"Do you even know how old she is?"

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"Look at her! Just Look!" She shouts and he looks at me. A look of realisation comes over him. "She's a little girl! She hasn't done anything wrong! The last time she saw us was at the byzantium!"

"Oh Izzy." He whispers.

"I just want to go home." I sob.

"They did things to her doctor. Terrible things." Amy tells him.

His head snaps over to her. "What do you mean? What things?"

"She needs to show you."

He comes over to me and I can't help but flinch. "Don't hurt me."

"No Izzy, I would never hurt you."

"Everyone hurts me."

"Izzy, I'm so sorry, please forgive me."

I nod my head and he unties me, I get up and knowing what he wants to see, I lift up my top revealing my stomach, along with the scars covering it. He covers his mouth with his hand as tears fill his eyes.

"Izzy, my Izzy, I'm so sorry." he tells me.

"I'm fine, it doesnt hurt anymore." I tell him.

"Anymore? Did they do this to you when you were awake?"

"Yeah, they did."

I can see the anger in his eyes. "How long have you been here?"

"Two months."

"I'm so sorry, but I promise you they will pay."

"No. Don't doctor. I don't want you to seek revenge. Please."

"Fine. But they will do their time."

He then turns back to Melody. "It's okay. She's still all yours. And really, you should call her mummy, not big milk thing."

"Okay, what are you doing?" Amy asks him.

"I speak Baby."

"No, you don't."

"I speak everything, don't I, Melody Pond. No, it's not. it's cool."

"Doctor? Take a look. They're leaving. Demon's Run is ours without a drop of blood spilled. My friend, you have never risen higher." Vastra tells the doctor as she walks into the room.

 _Later on..._

Amy carried Melody out of the Tardis. Rory walks up to her and asks "Hey, what's wrong?".

"She doesn't like the Tardis noise. I asked him to turn something off, but it was all, but I don't want to punch a hole in the space-time continuum. Shush." Amy complains.

"Rory! The Judoon have escorted the Clerics out of the quadrant. Spitfires have returned to their own time. Captain Avery and his men are going. Is she all right?" Jenny asks the two of them.

"Yes, she's just crying."

"Give her to me, human fool. She needs changing." Strax insists.

"I just changed her. I think she might need a feed."

"A feed, of course. I'll take care of everything."

"Not gonna happen!" I tell him.

"I have gene-spliced myself for all nursing duties. I can produce magnificent quantities of lactic fluid."

"I don't care!"

The Doctor comes out of the Tardis with a wooden cot that has an orrary dangling over it. "She's not hungry, she's tired. Sorry, Melody, they're just not listening." He says to baby Melody.

"What's this?" Amy asks him.

"Very pretty, according to your daughter."

"It's a, it's a cot." Rory says in surprise, or maybe it's shock.

"No flies on the Roman. Give her here."

"Hey, there we go." Amy says.

"But where would you get a cot?" Rory asks the doctor.

"It's old. Really old. Doctor, er, do you have children?"

"No." The doctor tells her quietly.

"Have you ever had children?"

"No, it's real. It's my hair."

"Who slept in here?"

"Doctor, we need you in the main control room." We hear Vastra's voice say over the speaker system.

"Be right there! Things to do. I've still got to work out what this base is for. We can't leave till we know." The doctor says.

"But this is where I was? The whole time I thought I was on the Tardis, I was really here?" Amy asks him.

"Er, Centurian, permission to hug?"

"Be aware, I do have a sword." Rory tells him.

"At all times. You were on the Tardis, too. Your heart, your mind, your soul. But physically, yes, you were still in this place."

"And when I saw that face looking through the hatch, that woman looking at me." Amy says.

"Reality bleeding through. They must have taken you quite a while back. Just before America."

"That's probably enough hugging now. So her Flesh avatar was with us all that time. But that means they were projecting a control signal right into the Tardis wherever we were in time and space." Rory says.

"Yeah, they're very clever."

"Who are?" Amy asks him in confusion.

"Whoever wants our baby." Rory tells her.

"But why do they want her?"

"Exactly." The doctor says.

"Is there anything you're not telling us? You knew Amy wasn't real. You never said." Rory says.

"Well, I couldn't be sure they weren't listening."

"But you always hold out on us. Please, not this time. Doctor, it's our baby. Tell us something. One little thing." Amy begs him.

"It's mine."

"What is?" Rory asks him.

"The cot. It's my cot. I slept in there." Before he leaves he turns to me. "Is there anything you're not telling me?"

"I can't tell you." I tell him. A look of anger crosses his fave and he storms out and I can't help but feel that I let him down.

"Oh, my God. It's the Doctor's first stars." Amy says.

Amy wipes Melody's dribble with the prayer leaf.

"Drop your weapons. State your rank and intent. I found it listening at the door." Strax says.

It's that girl.

"I heard her talking. This is a trap. Why would I lie to you?" she says.

"Well, you might want to take a look at your uniform." Rory tells her.

"The only reason I joined the Clerics was so I could meet the Doctor again."

"You wanted to meet him, so you joined an army to fight him?" Jenny asks her in disbelief.

"Well, how else do you meet a great warrior?"

"He's not a warrior." Amy tells her.

"Then why is he called the Doctor?" The lights go out. "It's starting. Please, listen to me."

"Confirmed. No life forms registering on this base, except us and the Silurians."

"The Headless Monks aren't alive. They don't register as life forms."

A white light cone appears around the Tardis.

"What's that?" Amy asks.

"A force field." Vastra tells her.

"And those are the doors locking." Lorna tells us.

"Apparently we're not leaving." Vastra says.

"Is that the Monks?" Rory asks.

"Oh, dear God. That's the attack prayer." Dorium says.

"Quick, come with me."

"Commander Strax!" Vastra shouts.

"I'm trying to seal off this area of the lighting grid." he tells her.

"This is where we'll make our stand. Clear lines of sight on all approaches."

Rory hides Amy and Melody behind some boxes. "Izzy! You two! The doctor would never forgive me if something happened to you" He says to me. I run over to the three of them.

"Rory, no offence to the others, but you let them all die first, okay?" Amy tells him.

"You're so Scottish." Rory tells her.

"Centurian, you're needed!" Vastra calls out.

We don't anything until we hear Vastra shout out "Mister Maldovar, get back here!", and I remember what's about to happen to him.

"Arm yourself, fool!" Strax shouts out.

Then we hear Rory shout "Dorium!".

A moment later, we hear the sounding of metal swinging through the air. I can't help but squeeze my eyes shut.

"Mister Maldovar?" Vastra calls out.

"Dorium?" We hear Rory question.

It's quiet until we hear vastra shout "The child. At all costs, protect the child!", I look at Amy in worry, I wish I could tell her, she's always been so nice to me, I hate this! I wish I never came here! All I'm doing is helping ruin Amy and Rory's lifes! Tears run down my cheeks.

Baby melody disappears into that white goop. Amy _(of course she does.)_ starts to panic.

"Rory! Rory!" she ends up screaming.

The Doctor runs in. Everything is quiet.

"Amy! Amy." The doctor says in realisation as we walk towards him.

"Yeah, we know." Rory tells him.

Strax is dying, I would feel guilty except I know he gets brought back to life.

The Doctor walks over to where we are, Jenny is comforting Amy.

"So they took her anyway. All this was for nothing." Amy says in misery.

"I am so sorry." The doctor tells her as he reaches for her but she flinches back.

"Amy, it's not his fault." Jenny says.

"I know. I know." Amy says.

The doctor looks at me and a look of anger comes across his face. "What about her? She knew it was going to happen! I know you did! I was right about you!" He ends up screaming at me.

Amy turns to me. "Izzy, did you know?" she asks me.

"Yeah, but there's a reason I didn't tell you." I tell her.

"What reason?" She asks as tears fill her eyes.

"Because if I had said something, then anything could happen, I could have caused your death. Or worse! Baby Melody's! And I'm sorry, but that's something I couldn't have lived with. That would have destroyed me. I'm only a little girl, I kept it the same as the TV series because then I know everything will turn out fine." By the end of that, I'm sobbing.

"Oh, Izzy, I don't blame you, you're a child. This should never have been up to you." Amy tells me.

"What?" The doctor says.

"Doctor, you're the one in the wrong. You're blaming a little girl for picking the best option she could. She's always helped you, she's spent hundreds of years of your life helping you _and_ saving you. She's your best friend! She's the only one that has never _left you!_ " Amy tells him.

The doctor's face drops. "You're right. What am I doing? Blaming a child? Is that what I've become?", Then he turns to me, "Izzy, I'm so sorry, Amy's right, I've blamed you twice today and it hasn't been your fault. You're still a little girl and I should never have put these things on you because you should never have to be the one who decides any of these things." The doctor tells me.

"Thank you." I tell him.

"Doctor, there's someone who wants to speak to you. Her name is Lorna. She came to warn us." Vastra tells the doctor.

Lorna is also dying.

A few minutss later, Vastra says "So, what now? They'd almost certainly have taken her to Earth. Raise her in the correct environment."

"Yes, they did. And it's already too late. The doctor tells her.

"You're giving up? You never do that."

"Yeah, and don't you sometimes wish I did?"

There is a flash of lightning.

"Well then, soldier. How goes the day?" River asks him.

"Where the hell have you been? Every time you've asked, I have been there. Where the hell were you today?" The doctor asks as he storms over to her.

"I couldn't have prevented this."

"You could have tried!"

"And so, my love, could you. I know you're not all right. But hold tight, Amy, because you're going to be."

"You think I wanted this? I didn't do this. This, this wasn't me!"

"This was exactly you. All this. All of it. You make them so afraid. When you began, all those years ago, sailing off to see the universe, did you ever think you'd become this? The man who can turn an army around at the mention of his name. Doctor. The word for healer and wise man throughout the universe. We get that word from you, you know. But if you carry on the way you are, what might that word come to mean? To the people of the Gamma Forests, the word Doctor means mighty warrior. How far you've come. And now they've taken a child, the child of your best friends, and they're going to turn her into a weapon just to bring you down. And all this, my love, in fear of you."

"Who are you?"

"Oh look, your cot. Haven't seen that in a very long while."

"No, no, you tell me. Tell me who you are."

"I am telling you. Can't you read?"

He lokks down, then back up a moment later. "Hello."

"Hello."

"But but that means"

"I'm afraid it does."

"Ooo. But you and I, we, we, we, er", he makes kissing sounds.

"Yes."

The Doctor is getting all excited with anticipation.

"How do I look?" He asks.

"Amazing."

"I'd better be."

"Yes, you'd better be."

"Vastra and Jenny, till the next time. Rory and Amy, I know where to find your daughter, and on my life, she will be safe. River, get them all home."

"Doctor!" Rory shouts.

"No! Where are you going?" Amy asks.

The Doctor takes down the forcefield around the Tardis and goes inside.

"No!" Amy shouts.

The Tardis dematerialises.

"Where's he going and what did you tell him?" Amy asks River.

"Amy, you have to stay calm." River tells her.

Amy picks up a gun. "Tell me what you told the Doctor."

"Amy, no. Stop it!" Rory insists.

'It's okay, Rory. She's fine. She's good. It's the Tardis translation matrix. It takes a while to kick in with the written word. You have to concentrate." River tells them.

"I still can't read it." Amy says.

"It's because it's Gallifreyan and doesn't translate. But this will." She gives Amy the prayer leaf. "It's your daughter's name in the language of the Forest."

"I know my daughter's name."

"Except they don't have a word for Pond, because the only water in the forest is the River. The Doctor will find your daughter, and he will care for her whatever it takes. And I know that. It's me. I'm Melody. I'm your daughter."


	15. Asylum Of The Daleks

**Asylum Of The Daleks**

 _Six Months Later..._

I look in the mirror at my own reflection. _What happened to me?_ My eyes are dull and lifeless, my hair has been dyed black and I'm wearing all black.I don't think the doctor would recognize me but then I don't know who he is anymore. He's changed. He used to be my protecter, now I never know when he's gonna hate me next.

I don't want to go back. I'd rather stay in my own personal hell than go back and see him. I've had enough of it, I shouldn't have to try and make sure everything goes off perfectly. I should be having fun.

So that's what I'm doing, I walk out of the bathroom and into my bedroom. I grab the bottle of cider and I'm about to chug it when that familiar light appears along with that stab of pain that usually accompanies it.

With that, I reappear in a white room. The first thing I notice is Rory lying on the ground out cold. "Izzy!" I hear Amy exclaim and I turn to her. "Woah. You look... different." She tells me.

"Yeah I know." I tell her back not at all happy that I'm here.

Its then that Rory wakes up, He looks around and notices me. "Izzy! You look..."

"Different? Yeah, that's what everyone says."

"Where are we?" Rory asks. He gets up and looks out of the small window. "So how much trouble are we in?"

The door opens and a Dalek enters.

We hear the doctor's voice ask, "How much trouble, Mister Pond?"

The Doctor walks in, under escort.

"Out of ten? Eleven."

The ceiling opens and the floor rises, lifting us into the parliament of the daleks.

"Where are we? A spaceship, right?" Amy asks.

"Not just any spaceship. The Parliament of the Daleks. Be brave." The doctor tells her.

"What do we do?"

"Make them remember you. Well, come on then. You've got me. What are you waiting for? At long last, it's Christmas! Here I am."

The Doctor closes his eyes tight, expecting to die. The organic Dalek speaks.

"Save us. You will save us."

"I'll what?"

"You will save the Daleks."

"Save the Daleks. Save the Daleks. Save the Daleks. Save the Daleks. Save the Daleks. Save the Daleks. Save the Daleks." All of the daleks begin chanting.

"Well." The doctor says.

"Save the Daleks."

"This is new."

"What's he doing?" Rory asks.

"He's chosen the most defendable area in the room, counted all the Daleks, counted all the exits, and now he's calculating the exact distance we're standing apart and starting to worry. Oh, and look at him frowning now." Amy tells him. "Something's wrong with Amy and Rory, and who's going to fix it? And he straightens his bow tie."

"We have arrived." The lead dalek says.

"Arrived where?" The doctor asks.

"Doctor."

"The Prime Minister will speak with you now." Darla tells the doctor.

"Do you remember who you were before they emptied you out and turned you into their puppet?" He asks her. I let out a loud sigh, _I want to go home, I could be getting smashed right now._

"My memories are only reactivated if they are required to facilitate cover or disguise."

"You had a daughter."

"I know. I've read my file."

The Doctor walks up to the Prime Minister, who is the organic Dalek. "Well?" He asks it.

"What do you know of the Dalek Asylum?" The prime minister asks him.

"According to legend, you have a dumping ground. A planet where you lock up all the Daleks that go wrong. The battle-scarred, the insane, the ones even you can't control. It's never made any sense to me."

"Why not?"

"Because you'd just kill them."

"It is offensive to us to extinguish such divine hatred."

"Offensive?"

"Does it surprise you to know the Daleks have a concept of beauty?"

"I thought you'd run out of ways to make me sick. Hello again. You think hatred is beautiful."

"Perhaps that is why we have never been able to kill you."

A hole opens in the middle of the floor. The Doctor and Darla walk back to it. A planet is visible.

"The Asylum. It occupies the entire planet, right to the core." Darla tells the Doctor.

"How many Daleks are in there?" He asks her.

"A count has not been made. Millions, certainly."

"All still alive?"

"It has to be assumed. The Asylum is fully automated. Supervision is not required."

"Armed?" Amy asks.

"The Daleks are always armed."

"What colour? I'm sorry, there weren't any good questions left." Rory asks.

"This signal is being received from the very heart of the Asylum."

Carmen comes over the speakers.

"What is the noise? Explain. Explain." One of the Daleks demands.

"Er, it's me." The Doctor tells them.

"Sorry, what?" Rory asks.

"It's me, playing the triangle. Okay, I got buried in the mix. Carmen. Lovely show. Someone's transmitting this. Have you considered tracking back the signal and talking to them? He asked the Daleks. Hello? Hello? Carmen. Hello?"

"Hello?" Oswin, I think her name was.

"Come in. Come in. Come in, Carmen."

"Hello! Yes, yes, sorry. Do you read me?"

"Yes, reading you loud and clear. Identify yourself and report your status."

"Hello. Are you real? Are you actually, properly, real?"

"Yes, confirmed. Actually, properly, real."

"Oswin Oswald, junior entertainment officer, starship Alaska. Current status, crashed and shipwrecked somewhere not nice. Been here a year, rest of the crew missing. Provisions good but keen to move on."

"A year? Are you okay? Are you under attack?"

"Some local lifeforms. Been keeping them out."

"Do you know what those lifeforms are?"

"I know a Dalek when I hear one, yeah."

"What have you been doing on your own against the Daleks for a year?"

"Making souffles?"

"Souffles? Against the Daleks? Where'd you get the milk?"

"This conversation is irrelevant." The white Dalek says.

"No, it isn't. Because a starliner has crashed into your Asylum, and someone's got in. And if someone can get in, then everything can get out. A tsunami of insane Daleks. Even you don't want that."

"The Asylum must be cleansed."

"Then why is it still here? You've enough firepower on this ship to blast it out of the sky."

"The Asylum forcefield is impenetrable." Darla tells him.

"Turn it off."

"It can only be turned off from within the Asylum."

"A small taskforce could sneak through a forcefield. Send in a couple of Daleks. Oh." he applauds. "Oh. Oh, that's good. That's brilliant. You're all too scared to go down there. Not one of you will go, so tell me, what do the Daleks do when they're too scared?"

"The Predator of the Daleks will be deployed." The white Dalek says.

"You don't have a Predator, and even if you did, why would they turn off a forcefield for you?"

"Because you will have no other means of escape." The Dalek prime minister tells him.

"May I clarify? The Predator is the Dalek's word for you." Darla tells him.

"Me? Me?" The Doctor asks and I can't help but roll my eyes at him.

"You will need this. It will protect you from the nanocloud."

Two humanoids put a wristband on the Doctor's wrist.

"The what? The nano what?"

"The gravity beam will convey you close to the source of the transmission. You must find a way to deactivate the forcefield from there."

"You're going to fire me at a planet? That's your plan? I get fired at a planet and expected to fix it."

"In fairness, that is slightly your M O." Rory tells him and for the first time in a long time, I actually giggle.

"Don't be fair to the Daleks when they're firing me at a planet." Rory and Amy have wristbands put on them, too, as well as myself. "What do you want with them?"

"It is known the Doctor required companions." The white Dalek tells him.

"Oh, brilliant. Good oh." Rory says and I can't help but smile.

"Don't worry. We'll get through this, I promise. Don't be scared." The Doctor tells us.

Amy's Look could melt granite. "Scared? Who's scared. Geronimo." She says.

"Ha! Oi!"

The humanoids push us all into the gravity beam.

"Argh!" The three of them scream, but as I'd already known what was coming, I'm not in the least surprised.

"Wrong way up! Wrong way up!" Rory shouts in panic and I can't help but feel sorry for him.

Rory plummets past the Doctor, myself and Amy, head first.

"Doctor!" Amy shouts.

I look to my right to see the Doctor lying on his back on the ground. He lifts his head and laughs. "You okay?" He asks me.

"I'm fine." I tell him in a clipped tone and he frowns at me before noticing the camera popping up out of the snow.

"Hey! Huh?"

That Carmen song plays over the speakers.

"Sorry, sorry! Pressed the wrong switch." Oswin says.

"Soufflé girl?" I roll my eyes.

"Could always call me Oswin, seeing as that's my name. You okay?"

"Ignore him. He's rude. He's always yelling at me." I tell her.

"Why are you with him then?"

"It's complicated. Trust me, I'd rather be at home." The Doctor gives me a hurt look but I ignore it.

"How are you doing that?" The Doctor taps the glass. "This is Dalek technology."

"Well it's very easy to hack."

"No, it isn't. Where are you?"

"Ship broke up when it hit. Somewhere underground, I think. You coming to get me?"

"Doctor!" We hear Amy shout.

"Hey!" The Doctor shouts as the connection goes. "Oi! soufflé girl! Come back."

"Doctor!"

"Amy!"

The Doctor helps Amy regain her footing as she comes down the snowy slope. We see a man following behind her and I narrow my eyes as I remember what he is.

"Where's Rory?" The Doctor asks her.

"There was another beam." The man tells us as he points in the direction of where the beam landed. "There, over there."

We all run to where he was pointing.

"Are you the rescue team?!" The man asks as he follows us and I actively ignore him.

We reach a perfectly round hole in the ground that looks like a well. Me, Amy and the Doctor kneel.

"Rory? Rory?! RORY!" Amy screams.

"We came down two days ago. There's twelve of our escape pods. I don't know what happened to them." The man tells us.

"Alaska? That's the same ship as souffle girl." Amy says. I look down at the ground feeling bad for Oswin. It wasn't that long ago that I watched this episode.

The man opens a hatch covered in snow.

"Yeah. Except she's been here a year." The Doctor says.

"We should have some climbing rope long enough for that hole." The man tells us.

"Won't you introduce us to your crew?"

"Ah, yes, sorry. Guys, this is the Doctor and Amy." The dead crew don't answer and I can't help but feel a little scared. "Guys?...Oh, my god."

The Doctor does a quick sonic scan. "They're dead. All of them."

"That's not possible. I just spoke to them. Two hours ago. We were doing engine repairs."

"You're sure about that, are you? Because I'd say they've all been dead for a very long time."

"But they can't have been."

"Well, they didn't get in this state in two hours." Amy tells him.

"No, of course. Stupid me."

"Of course what?"

"I died outside, and the cold preserved my body. I forgot about dying."

Out pops the Dalek eyepiece. The Doctor grabs a CO2 fire extinguisher and lets it off in the hybrid's face.

"Amy, the door!" The Doctor shouts.

"Come on, come on." Amy says. The hybrid is backed through a door that Amy manages to get open, then closes and locks again. "Explain. That's what you're good at. How'd he get all Daleked?"

"Because he wasn't wearing one of these. Oh, ho, ho. That's clever. The nanocloud. Microorganisms that automatically process any organic matter, living or dead, into a Dalek puppet. Anything attacks this place, it automatically becomes part of the on-site security."

"Living or dead?"

"These wristbands protect us. The only thing stopping us going exactly the way he did."

"Doctor, shut up! Living or dead?"

"Yes, exactly. Living or, or" The corpses have glowing eyepieces, and are starting to move. "Dead. Oh dear."

The Doctor kicks the zombies so the three of us can get into the cockpit. He pulls Amy's arm out of the zombie's grasp and seals the bulkhead door.

"Is it bad that I've really missed this?" Amy asks him.

"Yes." He tells her.

"Good."

"I know."

"Unauthorised personnel may not enter the cockpit." We hear Oswin say.

"Shut up."

"Oh, Mister Grumpy. Bad combo. No sense of humour in that chin."

"Is that her again, souffle girl?" Amy asks.

"Yeah, she. Oi, what is wrong with my chin?" The Doctor asks.

"Careful, dear. You'll put someone's eye out." Oswin says and I can't help but laugh. "Scanning you. You're in another of the escape pods from the Alaska, right? Same ship I was on."

"How can you hack into everything? It should be impossible. You're in a crashed ship!"

"Long story. Is there a word for total screaming genius that sounds modest and a tiny bit sexy?"

"Doctor. You call me the Doctor.*

"See what you did there. Check the floor. I'm picking up a breach at floor level. There could be a way out. See you later."

"Ah ha! Hatch. Looks like it's been used already and they've tried to block it off behind them."

"Can't imagine why." Amy says.

"The lower part of the pod is buried, so this must go straight down to the Asylum."

"Where Rory is."

"Speaking of Rory, is there anything you want to tell me?"

"Are we going to do this now?*

"What happened?*

"Oh, stuff. You know. We split up. What can you do?"

"What can I do?"

"Nothing. It's not one of those things you can fix like you fix your bowtie. Don't give me those big wet eyes, Raggedy Man. It's life. Just life. That thing that goes on when you're not there."

"What about you?" The Doctor asks as he turns to me.

"What about me?" I ask him stubbornly.

"What's happened to you? You'd never wanna go back home, you hate it there."

"Yeah but you see, Doctor, I hate it her more."

"Since when?"

"Since Demon's run. I realised a lot of things."

The Doctor blanches at that. "Demon's run?"

"Yeah, that was the last time I saw you and I realised that no matter what I do, you're always going to blame me. I also realised that I don't care anymore. I don't care about anyone anymore."

"Now I know that's not true. My Izzy"

As soon as he says that, I explode. "I'm not your Izzy!!" I scream at him as tears trail down my cheeks. "I used to believe that you'd protect me, that you cared about me and you do, until things go wrong and then it's my fault."

"Doctor, she's right. Think about it. Whenever something goes wrong, she's the first one you blame." Amy tells him and the Doctor suddenly looks very guilty.

"Oh, Izzy, I'm so sorry. I shouldn't blame you, you're just a little girl." He puts his arms around me and it feels so foreign that I don't know what to do at first, after a moment, I wrap my arms tight around him. He squeezes me before letting go and turning towards the hatch and he gets it open. A shaft heads down into the planet, with a flexible metal ladder hanging down it.

"Okay, so somebody else got out this way, then." Amy says as I wipe my tears away.

"Yeah, let's go and find them. Oh, hello, hello, hello. What are they up to?" The Doctor asks.

The zombies are on a small monitor on the wall, waving something at the camera.

"What's that?" Amy asks.

"One of these. But where did they get it?" The Doctor asks pointing to his own wristband.

"Doctor, they got it from me."

"Oh, Amy." He turns to me. "What's going to happen to her?"

"You know what's it going to do but in the end she'll be fine." I tell him and he lets out the breath he'd been holding.

"Doctor, what's going to happen to me? Seriously. Tell me what." Amy tells him.

We start climbing down the ladder from the cockpit into another corridor.

"So tell me, what's going to happen to me? And don't lie. Because I know when you're lying to me and I will definitely fall on you." Amy says again. This is the fourth time they've had this conversation, it's already started.

"The air all around is full of micro-machines. Robots the size of molecules. Nanogenes. Now that you're unprotected, you're being re-written." The Doctor tells her.

"So, what happens? I get one of those things sticking out of my head?"

"Physical changes come later."

"What comes first? How does it start?"

"With your mind. Your feelings, your memories, and I'm sorry but it's started already."

"How do you know?"

"Because we've had this conversation four times."

"Okay, scared now."

"Hang on to scared. Scared isn't Dalek."

A door rises to let us into a large room filled with daleks, they're repeating their favourite word some way away. The Doctor sniffs.

"What's that?" Amy asks him.

We back out again.

"Keep a look out. Don't open this door. Oswin! Oswin, can you hear me?" The Doctor asks.

"Hello, the chin. I have visual on you." Oswin tells him.

"Why don't I have a visual on you? Why can't I ever see you?"

"Limited power, bad hair, take your pick. There's a door to your left. Open it. I'm going to send you a map to that screen. I put your little friend somewhere safe. I can get you to him."

"Rory. You found Rory?"

"I call him Nina. Personal thing. Hush now."

"How many Daleks directly ahead of me right now?"

"Ten, twenty. Hard to say. Some of them are catatonic but they do have firepower."

"How do I get past them? Amy!"

"Shush. It's okay, it's just people in here. It's just people." Those are definitely not people.

"Amy, it's the nanocloud, it's altering your perception. Look again. Look again. Those aren't people. Amy, come out. Take my hand. Run! Run!"

We all run back to the rope ladder, which is moving under the weight of descending zombies.

"Look, they're coming down!" Amy says.

"Er, oh yes, they are." The Doctor tells her.

"Intruder." A Dalek says.

"Run."

"Intruder." We hide in the cubby hole Oswin opened for the Doctor. "Intruder."

It runs out of power. We come out of the cubby hole again.

"It's damaged." The Doctor says.

"Okay, but what do we do?" Amy asks him.

"Identify me. Access your files. Who am I? Come on. Who's your daddy?"

"You are the Predator." The Dalek says.

"Access your standing orders concerning the Predator."

"The Predator must be destroyed."

"And how are you going to do that, Dalek? Without a gun you're a tricycle with a roof. How are you going to destroy me?"

"Self-destruct initiated."

"What's it doing?" Amy asks.

"It's going to blow itself up, and I with it. Only weapon it's got left." The Doctor tells her.

"Self-destruct cannot be countermanded." The Dalek tells us.

The Doctor lifts the Daleks' lid and scans inside.

"I'm not looking for a countermand, dear. I'm looking for reverse." The Doctor says.

"Forward, forward."

The Dalek whizzes backwards into the chamber and blows up.

"Oswin? What happened? Who killed all the Daleks?" I hear Rory ask.

The Doctor walks in, carrying Amy with me following him.

"Who do you think?" The Doctor asks and I can't help but roll my eyes.

Once we're in the teleport room, the Doctor lays Amy on the teleport pad.

"Will sleeping help her? Will it slow down the process?" Rory asks the Doctor.

"You'd better hope so because pretty soon she's going to try and kill you." Oswin says and I can't help the bit of anger that flares up.

"Amy." The Doctor says.

"Ow." She moans.

"Amy. Still with us."

"Amy, it's me. Do you remember me?" Rory asks her before she slaps him. "She remembers me."

"Same old Amy.*

"Do you know how you make someone into a Dalek? Subtract love, add anger. Doesn't she seem a bit too angry to you?" Oswin says and I can feel myself snapping.

"Well, somebody's never been to Scotland." Amy says.

"Shut up Oswin. She's fine and she's going to be fine!" I snap.

"What about you, though, Oswin. How come you're okay?" He asks Oswin, purposefully ignoring my outburst. "Why hasn't the nanocloud converted you?"

"I mentioned the genius thing, yeah? Shielded in here." She tells him.

"Clever of you. Now, this place. The Daleks said it was fully automated. Look at it. It's a wreck."

"Well, I've had nearly a year to mess with them, and not a lot else to do."

"A junior entertainment manager hiding out in a wrecked ship, hacking the security systems of the most advanced warrior race the universe has ever seen. But you know what really gets me about you, Oswin? The souffls. Where do you get milk for the souffles? Seriously. Is no one else wondering about that?"

"No. Frankly, no. Twice." Rory says.

"So, Doctor. I've been looking you up. You're all over the database. Why do the Daleks call you the Predator?" Oswin asks him.

"I'm not the Predator, I'm just a man with a plan." The Doctor says.

"You've got a plan?"

"I'm all ears." Rory says.

"There's a nose joke going if someone wants to pick that one off." Amy says and I smirk.

"In no particular order, we need to neutralise all the Daleks in this Asylum, rescue Oswin from the wreckage, escape from this planet and fix Amy and Rory's marriage." The Doctor says.

"Okay, I'm counting three lost causes. Anyone else?"

"Oswin, there's a Dalek ship in orbit."

"Yes. Got it on the sensors." Oswin tells us.

"The Asylum has a forcefield. The Daleks upstairs are waiting for me to turn it off. Soon as I do, they'll burn this whole world and us with it. So, Oswin, my question is this. How fast can you drop the forcefield?"

"Pretty fast. But why would I?"

"Because this is a teleport. Am I right, Oswin?"

"Yeah. Internal use only."

"I can boost the power. Once the forcefield is down, I can use it to beam us right off this planet."

"You said when the forcefield is down, the Daleks will blow us up." Rory says.

"We'll have to be quick, yes."

"Fine, we'll be quick. But where do we beam to?" Amy asks him.

"The only place within range. The Dalek ship."

"They'll exterminate us on the spot."

"Ah, so this is the kind of escape plan where you survive about four seconds longer." Rory says.

"What's wrong with four seconds? You can do loads in four seconds. Oswin, how fast can you drop the forcefield?" The Doctor asks Oswin.

"I can do it from here, as soon as you come and get me." She tells him.

"No, just drop the forcefield and come to us."

"There's enough power in that teleport for one go. Why would you wait for me?"

"Why wouldn't I?"

"No idea. Never met you. Sending you a map so you can come get me."

"This place is crawling with Daleks." Rory pipes up.

"Yeah. Kind of why I'm anxious to leave. Come up and see me sometime."

"So, are we going to go get her?"

"I don't think that we have a choice. Okay, as soon as the forcefield is down the Daleks will attack. If it gets too explody-wody in here, you go without me, okay?" The Doctor asks.

"And leave you to die?"

"Oh, don't worry about me. You're the one beaming up to a Dalek ship to get exterminated."

"Fair point. Love this plan. What about Amy?"

"Keep her remembering, keep her focused. That'll hold back the conversion."

"What do I do?" Amy asks.

"You heard what she said. They're subtracting love. Don't let them."

I follow the Doctor through the corridor.

"Emergency. Emergency. Prepare to be annihilated. Emergency. We are the Daleks. We are the Daleks." The Daleks say.

"Oswin, I think I'm close." The Doctor tells her.

"You are. Less than twenty feet away. Which is the good news." Oswin tells us.

"Okay. And the bad which I suddenly feel is coming?"

"You're about to pass through Intensive Care."

The Daleks here are in cages.

"What's so special about this lot, then?"

"Don't know. Survivors of particular wars. Spiridon, Kembel, Eridius, Vulcan, Exxilon. Ringing any bells?"

"All of them."

"Yeah? How?"

"These are the Daleks who survived me."

They all start saying the Doctor's name.

"That's weird. Those ones don't usually wake up for anything."

"Yeah, well special visitor. Okay, door, but it won't open. I can't be far away, though."

"Hang on. Not quite sure. There's a release code. Let me just, anything out there?"

"No."

"Hang on, I'm trying to think."

"Doctor" A Dalek says as it starts coming towards us and I can't help the fear that shoots through me.

"Oswin, get this door open. Oswin, open this door!" The Doctor starts shouting.

"I can't!" She tells him.

"Doctor, I'm scared." I tell him as I grab his hand. He looks down at me.

"Everything is going to be fine. I promise I won't let anything happen to you." He says as he squeezes my hand. "Oswin. Just get this door open! Oswin! Oswin, please! Get this door open! Help me! Please! Not her! I have to protect her Oswin! Please! Help me do that!" I look at him in shock, I didn't realize he cared that much about me. A plunger is heading for the Doctor's face. "Stop!"

The Daleks stop, then turn away.

"Oh, that is cool. Tell me I'm cool, chin boy." Oswin says as I finally relax.

"What, what did you do?"

"Hang on, I think I've found the door thingy."

"No, tell me what you did."

"The Daleks, they have a hive mind. Well, they don't, they have a sort of telepathic web."

"The path web, yes."

"I hacked into it, did a mass delete on all the information connected with the Doctor."

"You made them forget me?"

"Good, eh? And here comes the door."

"I've tried hacking into the path web. Even I couldn't do it."

"Come and meet the girl who can. Hey, you're right outside. Come on in."

We walk in to see a Dalek.

"Oswin, we have a problem." The Doctor tells her.

"No, we don't. Don't even say that. Joined the Alaska to see the universe, ended up stuck in a shipwreck first time out. Rescue me, chin boy, and show me the stars."

"Does it look real to you?"

"Does what look real?"

"Where you are right now. Does it seem real?"

"It is real."

"It's a dream, Oswin. You dreamed it for yourself because the truth was too terrible."

"Where am I? Where am I? Where am I?"

"Because you are a Dalek."

"I'm so sorry Oswin." I tell the Dalek.

"I am not a Dalek. I am not a Dalek! I'm human." Oswin tells us.

"You were human when you crashed here. It was you who climbed out of the pod. That was your ladder." The Doctor tells the Dalek.

"Where am I? Where am I? Where am I? I'm human."

"Not any more. Because you're right. You're a genius. And the Daleks need genius. They didn't just make you a puppet, they did a full conversion."

"Where am I? Where am I? Where am I?"

"Oswin, I am so sorry, but you are a Dalek. The milk, Oswin. The milk and the eggs for the souffles. Where, where did it all come from?"

"Eggs. Eggs."

"It wasn't real. It was never real."

"Eggs. Stir. Min. Ate."

"Oswin."

"Eggs. Stir. Min ate. Exterminate."

"Oswin. No, no, no, Oswin. Oswin."

"Exterminate!"

"Listen. Oswin, you don't have to do this."

"Exterminate!"

"Oswin!"

"Why do they hate you so much? They hate you so much. Why?"

"I fought them many, many times."

"We have grown stronger in fear of you."

"I know. I tried to stop."

"Then run."

"What did you say?"

"I've taken down the forcefield. The Daleks above have begun their attack. Run!"

"Oswin, are you"

"I am Oswin Oswald. I fought the Daleks and I am human! Remember me."

"Thank you."

"Run!"

We start running through the corridors, Amy and Rory are kissing when we run back into the teleport room.

"Right, go! Let's go. We're good. Let's go. Oh, for God's sake." The Doctor says before he takes the control unit from Rory and activates it. We land inside the Tardis.

"You know, you guys should really have seen this coming. The thing about me and teleports, I've got a really good aim. Pin-point accurate, in fact. Or, to put it another way" The Doctor says before leaning out of the TARDIS doors. "Suckers!"

"Identify yourself. Identify. Identify." I hear the daleks say.

"It's me. You know me. The Doctor. The Oncoming Storm. The Predator."

"Titles are not meaningful in this context. Doctor who?" Darla asks him.

"Doctor who?" The Daleks begin asking.

"Oh, Oswin. Oh, you did it to them all. You beauty." The doctor says.

"Doctor who? Doctor who?"

"Fellas, you're never going to stop asking." He shuts the door and puts in coordinates. We drop Amy and Rory off. The Doctor dances as he sets the controls.

He turns to me, "you're gonna be going soon."

"Yeah."

"Are you still angry with me?"

"No. Not after the way you reacted with the daleks."

"I'm going to miss you."

"It's been getting shorter, I keep seeing you more often."

"Yeah, that's going to keep happening, one day, you'll be with me all of the time."

"I'm not sure how to feel about that."

He doesn't say anything to that and I feel that familiar pain before I land on my bed, I look down to see my bottle of drink on the floor, I pick it up, go downstairs and I pour it away before throwing it in the bin.


	16. Silence In The Library

_One Year Later…_

The music is blaring through the floor, she's having another one of her parties. I don't want to be here, I don't want one of her friends coming upstairs, I don't want to think about what they'll try and do.

Before I can think about it too much, I find myself in a room with the Doctor standing in front of me with Donna Noble.

"Others? What's it mean, others?" She asks before walking over to a Node, they haven't spotted me yet and it's at that moment that I realise where I am. I look around in fear, I step forward, making sure I stay out of the shadows. "Excuse me. What does it mean, others?"

"That's barely more than a speak your weight machine, it can't help you." The Doctor tells her.

"So why's it got a face?"

"This flesh aspect was donated by Mark Chambers on the occasion of his death." The node tells her.

"It's a real face?"

"It has been actualised individually for you from the many facial aspects saved to our extensive flesh banks. Please enjoy."

"It chose me a dead face it thought I'd like? That statue's got a real dead person's face on it."

"It's the fifty first century. That's basically like donating a park bench." The Doctor says.

"It's donating a face!"

"No, wait, no." The Doctor grabs Donna as she backs away.

"Oi. Hands."

"The shadow. Look."

"What about it?"

"Count the shadows."

"One. There, counted it. One shadow."

"Yeah But what's casting it?" I look down at the triangular shadow and I can't help but shiver. "Oh, I'm thick! Look at me, I'm old and thick. Head's too full of stuff. I need a bigger head."

I can't help but let out a giggle and the Doctor's head snaps over to me and he gives me a big grin.

"Izzy! When did you get here?" He asks me.

"A couple of minutes ago. I'd come over to you but I'm not sure I want to move." I tell him

He sighs. "Of course you already know."

"I always do."

"Am I glad to see you." Donna says and I can't help but frown.

"You've met me then." I say.

"You haven't." She says in realisation.

"Sorry."

"It's fine." The light in adjoining corridor is going out. "The power must be going."

"No it's not, it's impossible for the power to go." I tell her.

"She's right. This place runs on fission cells. They'll outburn the sun." The Doctor says.

"Then why is it dark?" Donna asks.

"It's not dark."

"That shadow. It's gone."

"We need to get back to the Tardis."

"Why?"

"Because that shadow hasn't gone. It's moved."

"Reminder. The library has been breached. Others are coming. Reminder. The library has been breached. Others are coming. Reminder. The library has been breached." The node keeps telling us.

A door is blown open in a flash of bright light, and six spacesuited figures enter. The leader adjusts her polarising filter so we can see her face. "Hello, sweetie, honey." River greets us.

"Get out." The Doctor tells her and I roll my eyes.

"Doctor." Donna says.

"All of you. Turn around, get back in your rocket and fly away. Tell your grandchildren you came to the library and lived. They won't believe you."

"Pop your helmets, everyone. We've got breathers." River tells her crew.

"How do you know they're not androids?" Anita says.

"Because I've dated androids. They're rubbish."

"Who is this? You said we were the only expedition. I paid for exclusives." Lux complains.

"I lied, I'm always lying. Bound to be others."

"You still are." I tell her, she glances over at me and gives me a smile.

"Miss Evangelista, I want to see the contracts." Lux tells his assistant.

"You came through the north door, yeah? How was that, much damage?" River asks the Doctor.

"Please, just leave. I'm asking you seriously and properly, just leave. Hang on. Did you say expedition?" The Doctor asks.

"My expedition. I funded it." Lux tells the Doctor.

"Oh, you're not, are you? Tell me you're not archaeologists."

"Got a problem with archaeologists?" River asks him.

"I'm a time traveller. I point and laugh at archaeologists."

"Ah. Professor River Song, archaeologist." I can't help but laugh.

"River Song, lovely name. As you're leaving, and you're leaving now, you need to set up a quarantine beacon. Code wall the planet, the whole planet. Nobody comes here, not ever again. Not one living thing, not here, not ever. Stop right there. What's your name?"

"Anita." She tells him and my face falls when I remember what happens to her, a tear falls down my face.

"You're all going to die." I tell them and everyone looks over at me. The doctor's face goes dark.

"Why did you have to say that?" He asks me.

"I'm sorry Doctor, but it's going to happen, none of us are safe here, we have to leave. We've got to get out!" I cry, full of terror.

"Honey, you're going to be okay, I promise you, you don't die here." River tells me.

"Swear on your parent's life."

"I swear."

"Okay."

The Doctor gives us a strange look before turning to Anita. "Anita, stay out of the shadows. Not a foot, not a finger in the shadows till you're safely back in your ship. Goes for all of you. Stay in the light. Find a nice, bright spot and just stand. If you understand me, look very, very scared. No, bit more scared than that. Okay, do for now. You. Who are you?"

"Er, Dave." Other Dave tells the Doctor.

"Okay, Dave."

"Oh, well, Other Dave, because that's Proper Dave the pilot, he was the first Dave, so when we"

"Other Dave, the way you came, does it look the same as before?"

"Yeah. Oh, it's a bit darker."

"How much darker?"

"Oh, like I could see where we came through just like a moment ago. I can't now."

"Seal up this door. We'll find another way out."

"Would you"

"We're not looking for a way out. Miss Evangelista?" Lux demands.

"I'm Mister Lux's personal everything. You need to sign these contracts agreeing that your individual experience inside the library are the intellectual property of the Felman Lux Corporation." Evangelista tells us.

"Right, give it here." The Doctor says to her.

"Yeah, lovely. Thanks." Donna says. All three of us tear up the contracts.

"My family built this library. I have rights." Lux tells us and I snigger.

"You have a mouth that won't stop. You think there's danger here?" River asks the Doctor.

"Something came to this library and killed everything in it. Killed a whole world. Danger? Could be." The Doctor tells her.

"That was a hundred years ago. The Library's been silent for a hundred years. Whatever came here's long dead."

"Bet your life?"

"Always."

"What are you doing?" Lux asks other Dave.

"He said seal the door." Other Dave tells him.

"Torch." The Doctor says.

"You're taking orders from him?" Lux demands.

"Spooky, isn't it?" The Doctor takes Lux's torch and shines it into the far recesses of the round room. "Almost every species in the universe has an irrational fear of the dark. But they're wrong, because it's not irrational. It's Vashta Nerada."

"What's Vashta Nerada?" Donna asks.

"It's what's in the dark. It's what's always in the dark. Lights! That's what we need, lights. You got lights?"

"What for?" River asks him.

"Form a circle. Safe area. Big as you can, lights pointing out."

"Oi. Do as he says."

"You're not listening to this man?" Lux asks her incredulously and I can't help but roll my eyes.

"Apparently I am. Anita, unpack the lights. Other Dave, make sure the door's secure, then help Anita. Mister Lux, put your helmet back on, block the visor. Proper Dave, find an active terminal. I want you to access the library database. See what you can find about what happened here a hundred years ago. Pretty boy, honey, you're with me. Step into my office."

"Professor Song, why am I the only one wearing my helmet?"

"I don't fancy you." I burst out laughing at that.

The Doctor goes over to Dave at the terminal. Lux takes off his helmet.

"Probably I can help you." The Doctor says and I cross my arms as I wait for him to realise.

"Pretty boy. Honey. With me, I said." River calls us.

"Oh, I'm pretty boy?"

"Yes. Ooo, that came out a bit quick." Donna says.

"Obviously." I say.

"Pretty?" He asks.

"Meh." Donna says.

"Don't let your shadows cross. Seriously, don't even let them touch. Any of them could be infected." I walk with him over to where River is waiting.

River takes her diary out of her bag. "Thanks." She tells us.

"For what?" The Doctor asks her and I look down at my feet.

"The usual. For coming when I call."

"Oh, that was you?"

"You're doing a very good job, acting like you don't know me. I'm assuming there's a reason. Although Izzy isn't."

"A fairly good one, actually."

"Okay, shall we do diaries, then? Where are we this time? Er, going by your face, I'd say it's early days for you, yeah? So, er, crash of the Byzantium. Have we done that yet? Obviously ringing no bells. Right. Oh, picnic at Asgard. Have we done Asgard yet? Obviously not. Blimey, very early days, then. Whoo, life with a time traveller. Never knew it could be such hard work. Look at you. Oh, you're young."

"I'm really not, you know."

"No, but you are. Your eyes. You're younger than I've ever seen you."

"You've seen me before, then?"

"I'm sorry River." I tell her as my eyes fill with tears, my heart's breaking for her. She looks over at me in fear before looking back towards the Doctor.

"Doctor, please tell me you know who I am." She begs him.

"Who are you?" He asks her.

An alarm goes off before Dave says, "Sorry, that was me. Trying to get through into the security protocols. I seem to have set something off. What is that? Is that an alarm?"

"Doctor? Doctor, that sounds like-" Donna begins.

"It is. It's a phone." The Doctor tells her.

"I'm trying to call up the data core, but it's not responding. Just that noise." Dave tells us.

"But it's a phone." Donna insists.

"Let me try something." The Doctor says before typing something. "Okay, doesn't like that. Let's try something else. Okay, here it comes. Hello?"

"Hello. Are you in my television?" Charlotte asks the Doctor as we all gather behind him.

"Well, no, I'm, I'm sort of in space. Er, I was trying to call up the data core of a triple grid security processor."

"Would you like to speak to my Dad?"

"Dad or your Mum. That'd be lovely."

"I know you. You're in my library."

"Your library?"

"The library's never been on the television before. What have you done?"

"Er, well, I just rerouted the interface."

Charlotte disappears from the screen.

"What happened? Who was that?" River asks.

"I need another terminal. Keep working on those lights. We need those lights!" The Doctor shouts.

"You heard him, people. Let there be light."

The Doctor goes to the other terminal, where River left her diary. When he picks it up, she takes it from him. "Sorry, you're not allowed to see inside the book. It's against the rules." She tells him.

"What rules?" He asks her.

"Your rules." I tell him, he turns to me and gives me a questioning look.

"Who is she?"

"Spoilers."

"I really hate that word."

"I say it a lot?"

"All of the time."

"Sorry Doctor, but you can't know about your future."

"Fine." He sighs before walking off. Books start flying off the shelves. "What's that? I didn't do that. Did you do that?"

"Not me." Dave says.

"What's Cal?" The books finally stop moving. The books start flying off the shelves again after a moment.

"What's causing that? Is it the little girl?" River asks.

"But who is the little girl? What's she got to do with this place? How does the data core work? What's the principle? What's Cal?"

"Ask Mister Lux."

"Cal, what is it?"

"Sorry, you didn't sign your personal experience contracts." Lux tells him and I glare at him.

"Mister Lux. Right now, you're in more danger than you've ever been in your whole life. And you're protecting a patent?"

"I'm protecting my family's pride."

"Well, funny thing, Mister Lux. I don't want to see everyone in this room dead because some idiot thinks his pride is more important."

"Then why don't you sign his contract? I didn't either. I'm getting worse than you." River says and I can't help but smile at her, she winks at me.

"Okay, okay, okay. Let's start at the beginning. What happened here? On the actual day, a hundred years ago, what physically happened?"

"There was a message from the Library. Just one. The lights are going out. Then the computer sealed the planet, and there was nothing for a hundred years."

"It's taken three generations of my family just to decode the seals and get back in." Lux tells us.

"Er, excuse me?" Evangelista tries to interrupt.

"Not just now."

"There was one other thing in the last message." River tells us.

"That's confidential."

"I trust these two with my life, with everything."

"You've only just met them."

"No, they've only just met me."

"Er, this might be important, actually." Evangelista says.

"In a moment." Lux tells her.

"This is a data extract that came with the message." River tells us.

"Four thousand and twenty two saved. No survivors." The Doctor reads.

"Four thousand and twenty two. That's the exact number of people who were in the library when the planet was sealed."

"But how can four thousand and twenty two people have been saved if there were no survivors?" Donna asks.

"That's what we're here to find out."

"And so far, what we haven't found are any bodies." Lux says.

We all follow the Doctor through the passageway to find a skeleton in rags.

"Everybody, careful. Stay in the light." The Doctor warns everyone and I grab hold of his hand, he squeezes my hand.

"You keep saying that. I don't see the point." Dave says.

"Who screamed?"

"Miss Evangelista."

"Where is she?"

"Miss Evangelista, please state your current position." River's voice echoes from very nearby. She takes a lit comm. unit from the remains of the skeleton's collar. "It's her. It's Miss Evangelista."

"We heard her scream a few seconds ago. What could do that to a person in a few seconds?" Anita asks.

"It took a lot less than a few seconds." The Doctor tells them all.

"What did?"

"Hello?" We hear Evangelista say.

"Er, I'm sorry, everyone. Er, this isn't going to be pleasant. She's ghosting." River tells everyone.

"She's what?" Donna asks.

"Hello? Excuse me. I'm sorry. Hello? Excuse me." Evangelista says.

"That's, that's her, that's Miss Evangelista."

"I don't want to sound horrible, but couldn't we just, you know?" Dave says.

"Show some respect!" I snap at him.

"Izzy's right. This is her last moment. No, we can't. A little respect, thank you." River tells him.

"Sorry, where am I? Excuse me?" Miss Evangelista says.

"But that's Miss Evangelista." Donna says and I look over at her in sadness, I thought it was horrible watching it on telly, but it's even worse in real life.

"It's a data ghost. She'll be gone in a moment. Miss Evangelista, you're fine. Just relax. We'll be with you presently." River says into the Comms. Unit.

"What's a data ghost?"

"There's a neural relay in the communicator. Lets you send thought mail. That's it there. Those green lights. Sometimes it can hold an impression of a living consciousness for a short time after death. Like an afterimage." The Doctor tells her.

"My grandfather lasted a day. Kept talking about his shoelaces." Anita says.

"She's in there." Donna says.

"I can't see. I can't. Where am I?" Evangelista says.

"She's just brain waves now. The pattern won't hold for long." Dave says.

"But, she's conscious. She's thinking." Donna insists.

"I can't see, I can't. I don't know what I'm thinking." We hear Evangelista say and it breaks my heart.

"She's a footprint on the beach. And the tide's coming in." The Doctor tells her.

"I can't bear this, it's so horrible." I tell him and he looks at me with sympathy.

"Where's that woman? The nice woman. Is she there?" Evangelista asks.

"What woman?" Lux asks in confusion.

"She's talking about Donna." I tell everyone.

"Is she there? The nice woman." Evangelista asks.

"Yes, she's here. Hang on. Go ahead. She can hear you." River tells Donna.

"Hello? Are you there?"

"Help her." The Doctor encourages Donna.

"She's dead." Donna cries.

"Yeah. Help her."

"Hello? Is that the nice woman?" Evangelista asks.

"Yeah. Hello. Yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm here. You okay?" Donna asks her.

"What I said before, about being stupid. Don't tell the others, they'll only laugh."

"Course I won't. Course I won't tell them."

"Don't tell the others, they'll only laugh."

"I won't tell them. I said I won't."

"Don't tell the others, they'll only laugh."

"I'm not going to tell them."

"Don't tell the others, they'll only laugh."

"She's looping now. The pattern's degrading." River tells everyone.

"I can't think. I don't know, I, I, I, I scream. Ice cream. Ice cream. Ice cream. Ice cream."

"Does anybody mind if I?"

"Ice cream. Ice cream." River turns off the comm. unit.

"That was, that was horrible. That was the most horrible thing I've ever seen." Donna says and I can't help but agree with her.

"No. It's just a freak of technology. But whatever did this to her, whatever killed her, I'd like a word with that."

"I'll introduce you." The Doctor darkly says.

Back in the rotunda, the Doctor says "I'm going to need a packed lunch."

"Hang on." River says.

"What's in that book?"

"Spoilers."

"Who are you?"

"Professor River Song, University of-"

"To me. Who are you to me?"

"Doctor, drop it." I tell him warningly and he looks at me in worry.

"Again, spoilers. Chicken and a bit of salad. Knock yourself out." River tells him.

"Right, you lot. Let's all meet the Vashta Nerada." The Doctor tells everyone. The Doctor starts scanning the floor with his sonic screwdriver.

"You travel with them, don't you? The Doctor and Izzy, you travel with them." River asks Donna.

"What of it?" Donna asks her.

"Proper Dave, could you move over a bit?" The Doctor asks him.

"Why?" Dave asks.

"Over there by the water cooler."

"You know them, don't you?" Donna asks her.

"Oh God, do I know them. We go way back, those two and me. Just not this far back."

"I'm sorry, what?"

"They haven't met me yet. I sent him a message, but it went wrong. It arrived too early. This is the Doctor and Izzy in the days before they knew me. And they look at me, they look right through me and it shouldn't kill me, but it does."

"What are you talking about? Are you just talking rubbish? Do you know them or don't you?"

"Donna! Quiet, I'm working." The Doctor says.

"Doctor! Rude." I reprimand him, I narrow my eyes when he rolls his eyes.

"Sorry." Donna mumbles.

"Donna. You're Donna. Donna Noble." River says in Realisation and I look down at my feet.

"Yeah. Why?"

"I do know the Doctor and Izzy, but in the future. Their personal future."

"So why don't you know me? Where am I in the future?"

"Okay, got a live one. That's not darkness down those tunnels. This is not a shadow. It's a swarm. A man eating swarm." The Doctor tells everyone before her throws a chicken leg into the shadow. It is only bone by the time it hits the floor. I can't help but shiver in fear. "The piranhas of the air. The Vashta Nerada. Literally, the shadows that melt the flesh. Most planets have them, but usually in small clusters. I've never seen an infestation on this scale, or this aggressive."

"What do you mean, most planets? Not Earth?"

"Mmm. Earth, and a billion other worlds. Where there's meat, there's Vashta Nerada. You can see them sometimes, if you look. The dust in sunbeams."

"If they were on Earth, we'd know."

"Nah. Normally they live on road kill. But sometimes people go missing. Not everyone comes back out of the dark."

"Every shadow?" River asks.

"No. But any shadow."

"So what do we do?"

"Daleks, aim for the eyestalk. Sontarans, back of the neck. Vashta Nerada? Run. Just run."

"Run? Run where?"

"This is an index point. There must be an exit teleport somewhere."

"Don't look at me, I haven't memorised the schematics." Lux tells everyone.

"You're an idiot! Why would you come somewhere where loads of people were killed without knowing the exit points?! I'm only a kid and even I know to think about that?!" I yell at him.

"Izzy, honey, calm down, don't worry." River tells me soothingly and I nod my head.

"Doctor, the little shop. They always make you go through the little shop on the way out so they can sell you stuff." Donna tells the Doctor.

"You're right. Brilliant! That's why I like the little shop." The Doctor says.

"Doctor!" I call him as I'm as surrounded by that familiar white light. He looks over at me and his face drops. "Bye Doctor. Goodbye River" I tell him.

"Bye Izzy. I'll see you soon." He says to me.

"Goodbye Honey." River says to me, I smile at them both before I disappear.


End file.
